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SISTER  MARY  FRANCIS  CLARE, 

“The  Nun  of  Kenmare.” 


Present  Case  of  Ireland 


PLAINLY  STATED; 


A PLEA  FOR  MY  PEOPLE  AND  MY  RACE. 


BY 

M.  F.  CUSACK, 

(the  nun  of  kenmare.) 


New  York  : 

P.  J.  KENEDY, 

EXCELSIOR  CATHOLIC  PUBLISHING  HOUSE , 
5 Barclay  Street. 


1881. 


BOSTON  COLLEGE  LIBRARY 
CHESTNUT  HILL,  MASS. 


Copyright,  1881,* 

BY 


P.  J.  KENEDY. 


b''.5 

C9S 


INDEX. 


PREFACE  •••»••• 
THE  CASE  OF  IRELAND  STATED— MY  CASE 
CHAPTER  I. 

Ireland  and  Public  Opinion  . • • , 

CHAPTER  II. 

Landlord  and  Tenant  . . ♦ ; 

CHAPTER  III. 

The  True  Consideration  of  Irish  Affairs  hindered 
by  Party  Opinion  . . . . 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Irish  Outrages  • . . ^ * I 

CHAPTER  V. 

The  Cause  of  Irish  Outrages  . • • • 

CHAPTER  VI. 


*AGB 

ix 

xiii 

I 

26 

53 

60 

83 


What  is  Communism? 


2043 


96 


Index. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

What  the  Irish  Nation  asks  . , , 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

What  Ireland  does  not  want  . , ; 

CHAPTER  IX. 

Why  Irish  Land  Industry  has  failed  . . 

CHAPTER  X. 

How  Irish  Land  Industry  has  been  crippled  • , 

CHAPTER  XI. 

The  Social  Relations  between  Landlords  and  Ten- 
ants ....... 

CHAPTER  XII. 

Social  Relations  between  Irish  Landlords  and  Ten- 
ANTS  -^{continued)  . • . . 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

The  different  Relations  between  English  and  Irish 
Landlords  and  Tenants  . . . . 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

The  Irish  Priests  and  the  Land  Agitation  . . 

CHAPTER  XV. 

The  Present  repeats  the  Past — A Tithe  Agitation  in 
Kerry  ....... 

CHAPTER  XVI. 


PAGB 

105 

123 

132 

I48 

162 

177 

202 

222 

255 


The  Irish  Land  Agent 


276 


Index . 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

PAGB 

Irish  Land  Agents— {continued)  . . £ 

• 3°° 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

The  Famine  Year  and  Sentimental  Grievances  . 

• 332 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

India  and  Ireland — Political  Economy  in  Ireland 

. 357 

C, 

APPENDIX  No.  I. 

» i 

APPENDIX  No.  II.  • . . . . 

• XXIV 

PREFACE. 


NTRODUCTIONS  and  Prefaces  are 
generally  passed  over  unread,  but  in 
the  present  case  I have  to  ask  the 
special  attention  of  the  reader  to  this  Preface. 
I wish  to  explain  my  reason  for  writing  this 
work,  and  the  reason  why  I hope  to  add 
additional  and,  perhaps,  not  altogether  irrele- 
vant information  to  a subject  on  which  it  might 
appear  as  if  there  was  little  more  to  be  said. 

My  reason  for  writing  this  work  has  been — 
that  having  had  the  distribution  of  a large 
Relief  Fund,  confided  to  me  by  friends  of 
Ireland  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  I have  neces- 
sarily derived  a great  deal  of  information.  A 
small  portion  of  this  Fund  came  from  Protest- 
ant friends  in  England,  and  a small  portion 
from  Catholics.  While  I found  amongst  both 
a kind  desire  to  relieve  distress,  I could  not 
but  see  that  there  was  an  extraordinary  and 
almost  total  ignorance  as  to  the  true  state  of 


Preface . 


Irish  affairs.  I believe  this  arose  partly  from 
want  of  correct  historical  information,  and  partly 
from  a want  of  that  personal  knowledge  of  this 
country  which  could  only  be  obtained  by  a 
residence  in  it,  and  by  a thoroughly  confidential 
intercourse  with  the  people. 

I use  the  word  confidential,  because  it  is 
quite  impossible  for  persons  passing  hurriedly 
through  the  country  to  know  the  real  feelings 
or  the  real  wants  of  the  people ; nor  can  such 
information  be  obtained  even  by  a temporary 
sojourn  in  Ireland.  For  the  present  I must 
ask  to  have  this  statement  taken  for  granted. 
Later,  I hope  to  prove  it. 

Further,  to  understand  why  the  Irish  people 
are  so  seriously  disaffected,  needs  some  know- 
ledge of  the  social  state  of  the  poor  and  middle 
classes  in  England.  I believe  much  misery 
and  confusion  have  arisen  from  a want  of 
thorough  information  on  this  subject.  English 
gentlemen  naturally  suppose  that  the  Irish 
peasant,  or  small  farmer,  has  the  social  advan- 
tages of  the  Englishman  of  his  class,  hence, 
they  cannot  possibly  understand  one-half  the 
causes  which  contribute  to  make  Ireland  poor 
and  discontented.  The  Irish  patriot,  perhaps, 


Preface. 


does  not  always  give  his  English  friends  credit 
for  their  ignorance,  nor,  probably,  unless  he 
has  had  direct  dealings  with  the  poorer  classes 
in  both  countries,  will  he  understand  it. 

Besides  this,  I have  had  interviews  with 
many  gentlemen  within  the  past  few  months, 
all  holding  the  most  opposite  political  and 
social  opinions,  who  came  to  discuss  these 
subjects.  And  I may  add,  as  an  evidence  how 
much  Ireland  is  misunderstood  in  England, 
that  just  before  we  were  “ proclaimed  ” in 
Kerry  for  our  supposed  social  disturbance,  the 
Marquis  of  Lansdowne  left  this  late  one  eve- 
ning, after  we  had  held  a long  and  most 
interesting  discussion,  and  returned  home 
unattended,  unarmed,  and  in  the  dark — for  in 
this  little  town  we  have  not  yet  attained  to  the 
advanced  civilization  of  gas.  Further,  his 
lordship  informed  me  that  he  was  leaving  in 
the  morning  for  shooting  in  Scotland  ; and  he 
left  his  young  children  alone  and  unprotected 
at  his  place  near  this.  Surely  this  confidence 
ought  to  be  a sufficient  answer  to  the  cry  for 
“ coercion,”  and  the  exaggerated  reports  about 
disturbances  in  Ireland. 


Ken  mare,  October , 1880. 


THE  CASE  OF  IRELAND  STATED, 


My  Case  is : — 

i.  That  English  people  do  not  know  the 
true  state  of  Ireland.  They  are  ignorant  of  it 
historically , because  they  only  read  the  pre- 
judiced narratives  of  English  historians.  They 
are  ignorant  of  it  socially , because  they  do  not 
read  the  Irish  papers,  and  English  papers  give, 
with  few  exceptions,  only  one  side  of  the  ques- 
tion. 

That  English  people  suppose  the  Irish  to 
be  a lawless,  indolent,  ungrateful  race,  because 
the  English  papers  report  “ outrages”  which 
never  happened,  whereas,  in  point  of  fact,  there 
are  far  fewer  outrages  in  Ireland  than  in  Eng- 
land. I refer  to  the  present  work  for  evidence, 
carefully  collected,  the  last  (to  this  date)  manu- 
factured outrage  being  denied  by  Mr.  O’Reilly, 
Lord  Greville’s  agent,  who  said  that  the  man 
said  to  have  been  shot  at  did  not  exist.  The 
last  English  outrage  which  did  happen  I find 
reported  in  the  Echo>  where  it  is  stated  that 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 

arsenic  sufficient  to  kill  200  people  was  placed 
in  a haunch  of  mutton  which  was  sent  anony- 
mously to  Mr.  Ashdown,  the  Duke  of  Cleve- 
land’s agent. 

That  the  case  of  the  Irish,  or  Anglo-Irish, 
landlords  alone  is  heard  in  England,  when 
nothing  is  heard  of  the  manner  in  which  so  many 
of  these  gentlemen  virtually  break  the  law  by 
compelling  their  unfortunate  tenants  to  evade 
Mr.  Gladstone’s  Land  Bill.  The  English  people 
ought  to  know  that  a law  made  in  England  for 
the  benefit  of  Ireland  is  persistently  set  at  defi- 
ance by  the  very  gentlemen  who  are  calling  the 
Irish  law-breakers,  and  who  are  calling  out  for 
coercion.  Of  this  I give  evidence  in  the  follow- 
ing pages. 

That  the  English  people  know  nothing  of 
the  countless  injustices  done  to  the  Irish  tenant 
by  “ rules  of  estates,”  an  arbitrary  code  of  laws 
enforced  by  Irish  landlords,  from  which  Irish 
tenants  have  no  protection.  Of  this  I give 
evidence. 

That  the  Irish  are  not  lazy  when  they  refuse 
to  pay  rents  which  are  extortionate,  and  will 
not  allow  them  to  have  the  mere  necessaries  of 
life.  Of  this  I give  evidence. 

That  while  the  Irish  people  are  simply  ask- 
ing for  such  laws  to  be  made  in  England  as 


7 he  Case  of  Ireland  slated. 

will  protect  their  lives  and  enable  them  to  live 
in  peace  and  on  the  poorest  food,  the  landlords 
are  clamouring  for  coercion,  so  that  their  tenants 
may  be  compelled  either  to  pay  rents  which  will 
not  leave  them  sufficient  for  bare  existence,  or 
to  drive  them  out  of  their  homes  and  their 
country.  Of  this  I give  evidence. 

That  the  present  Land  League  agitation  is 
simply  the  strike  of  a whole  nation  against 
unjust  government ; that  in  all  strikes,  acts  of 
violence  are  committed,  for  which  the  leaders 
are  not  responsible ; and  that  far  fewer  acts  of 
violence  have  been  committed  in  this  great 
national  strike  than  in  any  English  strike.  Of 
this  I give  evidence. 

That  those  who  refuse  to  pay  more  than 
Griffith’s  Valuation,  are  not  doing  so  from  dis- 
honest motives,  or  because  they  are  unwilling 
to  pay  any  rent ; but  that  they  are  doing  so  on 
the  principle  on  which  all  English  labour  strikes 
are  carried  out ; i.e .,  contending  for  more  to  be 
given  to  the  man,  and  less  to  the  master — for 
more  to  be  given  to  labour,  and  less  to  capital. 

That  the  Irish  people  cannot  in  justice  give 
all  to  the  landlord,  and  refuse  to  pay  the  shop- 
keeper, who  has  given  them  credit  in  the 
Famine  ; i.e.,  they  know  of  no  moral  law  which 
makes  it  justifiable  to  give  all  to  the  landlord 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

and  nothing  to  their  other  creditors.  Of  this  I 
give  evidence. 

Lastly — I am  firmly  convinced  that  the  prin- 
cipal cause  why  Irish  grievances  are  not  re- 
medied is,  because  Ireland  is  governed  at  the 
caprice  of  party , and  not  as  an  integral  portion 
of  the  United  Kingdom. 

In  any  part  of  England  or  Scotland  the  ques- 
tion is  the  general  good.  For  any  Irish  matter 
the  question  is  how  it  suits  party  politicians. 
Of  this  also  I give  evidence  from  English 
sources.  The  Times  says  : — 

“What  we  do  not  find  in  Sir  Stafford’s  speech  is  a due 
sense  that  the  next  Session  will  bring  us  face  to  face  with  a 
great  national  question,  and  that  party  ties  must  give  way 
before  the  paramount  claims  of  common  state  interests. 
If  Sir  Stafford  will  keep  clear  of  the  fourth  party  and  its 
troublesome  ways  he  may  leave  the  Government  to  keep 
clear  of  the  dangerous  advisers  whose  influence  he  professes 
to  be  afraid  of.” 


The  Daily  News  says  : — 

“Sir  Stafford  interprets  that  the  three  F’s  are  ‘ fraud, 
force,  and  folly.’  In  that  spirit  we  may  presume  will  all 
proposals  for  land  reform  be  entertained  by  his  party,  but 
the  hopes  of  the  Conservatives  are  not  in  their  own  strength. 
Only  a lack  of  thorough  union  among  the  Liberals  could 
even  in  Conservative  opinion  give  the  battle  into  Conser- 
vative hands.” 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 


Mr.  Bright  says  : — 

“ Until  now,  from  the  last  hundred  years,  and  from  longer, 
the  English  Government  and  the  English  Parliament  have 
always  come  to  the  rescue  of  the  landed  proprietors. 
England  has  done  it  in  the  past,  and  the  question  now  is 
whether  it  will  do  it  in  the  future.” 

The  Standard  of  November  writes  : — 

“ Lord  Salisbury  is  not  the  man  to  underrate  the  value  of 
the  occasion,  but  he  is  too  apt  to  turn  it  into  an  opportunity 
for  the  display  of  rhetorical  fireworks.  He  ought  to  see  in 
the  condition  of  Ireland  a theme  for  something  more  than  the 
invectives  and  satire  of  partisanship.  It  is  not  enough 
to  argue,  as  Lord  Randolph  Churchill  does,  that  Irish  dis- 
turbance and  disaffection  are  simply  due  to  the  mistakes 
committed  by  Mr.  Gladstone  and  his  colleagues.  No  man 
of  sense  believes  this. 


Sir  Stafford  Northcote  turns  the  whole  ques- 
tion into  ridicule  by  talking  of  force,  fraud,  and 
folly,  and  is  it  any  wonder  if  Ireland  has  wearied 
of  government  which  depends  too  often  not  on 
justice,  but  on  whether  this  or  that  political 
party  shall  hold  the  reins  of  statesmanship  ? 

“ If  an  Englishman,”  writes  the  Spectator,  “ wishes  to 
know  what  political  shame  means,  let  him  read  the  brilliant 
chapter  of  historical  review  in  Sir  Charles  Gavan  Duffy’s 
book  on  ‘Young  Ireland,’  and  he  will  feel  it  for  a time  a 
burden  almost  too  great  to  endure .” 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 

The  Echo  says  : — - 

“ There  is,  as  might  have  been  expected,  a good  deal  of 
denunciation  of  the  Government,  because  exceptional 
measures  have  not  been  taken  to  prevent  crime  and  outrage 
in  Ireland.  But  whatever  is  done  or  left  undone  is  sure  to 
be  opposed  in  certain  quarters.  If  the  Government  had  de- 
cided to  call  Parliament  together  to  suspend  the  Habeas 
Corpus  Act,  or  to  re-enact  some  stjingent  Coercion  Act, 
they  would  have  been  criticised,  taunted,  and  opposed, 
either  because  they  had  not  commenced  earlier,  or  done 
more,  and  now  they  have  not  done  so  they  have  exposed 
themselves  to  similar  acrimonious  comments.  The  truth  is 
that  it  is  impossible  that  the  Government  can  do  anything 
to  please  its  opponents.  The  best  thing  then  to  be  done  is, 
after  surveying  the  whole  of  the  circumstances,  to  act  for 
the  benefit  of  the  country,  and  not  attempt  to  conciliate 
faction  or  to  mitigate  the  acerbity  of  irreconcilables.,, 

Just  so.  All  we  ask  is,  that  Ireland  will  be 
governed  “ for  the  benefit  of  the  country.” 
But  when  English  writers  make  such  state- 
ments, Ireland  may  well  be  hopeless  of  justice. 

On  the  motion  for  the  second  reading  of  the 
Irish  Land  Act  in  1870,  Lord  Derby  spoke  as 
follows  : — 

a I ask  you  whether  the  Irish  Church  would  not  now 
have  probably  been  still  on  its  legs  but  for  the  Fenian  agita- 
tion ? I will  also  ask  whether  this  bill,  in  its  present  form, 
would  have  been  likely  to  pass  through  both  Houses  of 
Parliament  if  it  had  not  been  for  long-continued  agitation, 
supported  by  many  most  unjustifiable  acts  of  violence  ?” 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 


Professor  Thorold  Rogers,  writing  from  Ox- 
ford, December  i,  1880,  says  : — 

“ At  present  I am  convinced  that,  under  the  guidance  of 
Lords  Cairns  and  Redesdale,  the  Upper  House  deliberately 
intended  to  set  the  English  and  Irish  people  by  the  ears  to 
increase  the  difficulties  of  government  and  to  make  concilia- 
tory legislation  impossible  or  difficult.  But  I trust  that  the 
English  people  will  see  who  is  to  blame  for  the  present 
situation.” 

Kenmare,  Ireland,  December  Zth,  1880. 


MICHAEL  DAV1TT. 


THE  CASE  OF  IRELAND  STATED; 


A Plea  for  my  People  and  my  Race . 


CHAPTER  I. 

IRELAND  AND  PUBLIC  OPINION. 

On  this  matter  [the  state  of  Ireland]  English  opinion  shapes  itself 
largely  in  ignorance,  and  he  does  good  service  to  the  common  weal  who 
bears  ever  so  humble  a part  in  making  known  the  truth. — Daily 
Telegraph . 

HERE  is  one  subject,  at  least,  on  which 
we  cannot  complain  of  neglect  on  the 
part  of  the  English  nation.  Ireland 
and  Irish  affairs  occupy  so  prominent  a place 
in  the  public  press,  that  it  is  (especially  at  pre- 
sent) impossible  to  take  up  a serial  or  news- 
paper in  which  there  is  not  some  article  on  the 
Irish  question.  Ireland  is,  indeed,  the  best 
written  about  country  in  the  world.  The 
press  at  home  and  abroad  is  full  of  the  subject. 
In  Paris  we  have  the  Figaro , the  Debats , and 
the  Univers , each  with  its  theory  or  statements 


2 The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

as  widely  opposite  as  the  poles,  and  so  in  every 
continental  country.  The  Cologne  Gazette  has 
even  reproached  England  with  her  mismanage- 
ment of  Irish  affairs.  It  would  seem  then  as  if 
ignorance  on  Irish  subjects  could  not  be  the 
cause  of  our  chronic  state  of  disturbance,  yet 
that  such  is  the  case  we  can  give  ample  proof. 
Recrimination  is  not  argument,  yet,  unhappily, 
recrimination  forms  the  staple  ground  of  all  this 
press  discussion.  Where  do  we  find  anything 
like  calm,  impartial  discussion  ? and  yet  never 
was  there  a subject  which  so  much  needed 
it.  Ireland,  or  to  speak  more  accurately,  Irish 
affairs,  have  been  made  too  long  the  object 
of  party  politics ; Irish  affairs  have  not  been 
treated  as  if  they  were  imperial  affairs ; and  yet 
the  Irish  people  are  expected  to  exhibit  on  all 
occasions  an  ardent  attachment  to  the  English 
crown  and  constitution. 

We  have  asked  for  centuries  to  be  governed 
by  English  laws  ; we  have  been  governed  for 
centuries  by  the  caprice  of  party  politics.  Might 
it  not  be  well  to  try,  at  least  for  a time,  the 
effects  of  governing  Ireland  as  England  is 
governed — at  least  until  this  is  done,  do  not  call 
us  ungrateful,  or  threaten  us  with  coercion  acts. 

It  is  not  a little  remarkable  that  the  same 
policy  has  been  pursued  as  regards  Ireland  for 


Ireland  and  Public  Opinion . 3 

centuries.  It  has  not  been  successsful ; and 
might  it  not  be  advisable,  even  as  a matter  of 
common  sense,  to  try  a new  policy  ? 

But  before  any  policy  can  be  effected,  it  must 
be  grounded  on  a thorough  and  personal  know- 
ledge of  the  state  of  Ireland ; and  unless  this 
has  been  obtained,  it  is  equally  hopeless  to  ask 
or  to  attempt  any  legislation  for  this  country. 

Now,  there  are  several  subjects,  the  con- 
sideration of  which  must  precede  action,  and 
yet  they  are  precisely  the  subjects  on  which 
English  people  have  the  fewest  means  of  obtain- 
ing reliable  information. 

English  opinion  of  Irish  affairs  is  based  on 
two  separate  grounds — it  is  based  on  his- 
torical knowledge  and  current  opinion.  Eng- 
lish statesmen,  or,  to  speak  more  accurately, 
the  English  people,  when  they  discuss  Irish 
affairs,  preconceive  that  they  are  correctly  in- 
formed on  these  subjects.  Never  was  there  a 
more  fatal  delusion.  Irish  history  has  been 
written  much  as  Irish  news  is  written  to-day — 
not  from  facts,  but  from  opinions.  Mr.  Froude 
is  nothing  if  he  is  not  brilliantly  inaccurate. 
He  cannot  write  a page  of  the  history  even  of 
the  English  nation  with  common  veracity,  yet  he 
sits  down  with  the  air  of  a judge,  from  whose 
sentence  there  can  be  no  appeal,  to  pronounce 


4 The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

on  Irish  affairs  on  the  strength  of  having  spent 
a short  time  in  Kerry,  near  Kenmare,  where 
his  family  acted  in  direct  contradiction  to  his 
theory  by  doing  acts  of  kindness  to  the  people. 
He  writes  for  a public  whom  he  wishes  to 
amuse.  He  knows  it  will  not  criticise  any 
slander  he  chooses  to  write  about  Ireland, 
whatever  may  be  said  to  the  romance  he 
offers  when  he  writes  English  history  accord- 
ing to  Froude,  in  amusing  contradiction  to 
English  history  according  to  fact.  All  this 
is  of  very  little  consequence  as  far  as  English 
history  is  concerned.  English  people  have 
truthful  histories  of  England,  and  they  can 
very  easily  test  his  entertaining  fictions  by  his- 
torical facts.  His  brilliant  inventions  are  amus- 
ing, and  on  the  whole  harmless,  because  they 
are  known  to  be  the  aberrations  of  a genius. 
But  the  more  inventive  he  is  as  regards  Ireland, 
the  more  sure  he  is  to  be  believed ; and,  as  he 
is  always  amusing,  he  is  read.  People  want 
amusement ; truth,  plain  naked  truth,  is  not 
amusing,  and  they  prefer  the  fiction,  of  which 
he  is  so  untiring  a narrator.  When  the  truth 
is  known  about  Ireland  people  may  read  his 
Irish  fictitious  history  as  they  read  his  English 
fictitious  history — for  amusement ; but  they  will 
look  elsewhere  for  facts. 


Ireland  and  Public  Opinion. 


5 


Yet  it  is  from  such  writers  that  English 
people  learn  Irish  history.  They  have  then 
not  only  to  learn,  but  to  unlearn  before  they 
can  form  a correct  opinion  on  Irish  affairs. 

Mr.  Froude’s  “ English  in  Ireland”  is  from 
beginning  to  end  a series  of  inaccuracies.  Un- 
fortunately we  have  no  Irish  Freeman  to  give 
him  the  contradiction  which  justice  demands. 
We  can  give  but  one  sample  of  the  fiction 
which  he  writes.  His  admiration  for  the  Nor- 
man invaders  of  Ireland  is  unlimited,  and  in  his 
zeal  for  his  clients  he  forgets  English  history. 
A glance  at  Cambrensis  would  have  told  him 
the  character  of  the  men  he  delights  to  honour. 

Henry  II.  landed  in  Crook,  in  the  county 
Waterford,  on  the  18th  of  October,  1171. 

Contemporary  historians  do  not  give  a favour- 
able character  of  the  English  king,  though  he 
purposed  to  have  come  to  Ireland  to  im- 
prove it. 

Cambrensis  says  “ he  was  more  given  to 
hunting  than  holiness.”  It  would  have  been 
well  if  he  had  been  given  to  nothing  worse  than 
hunting.1 


1 He  was  a tyrant  to  the  nobility ; pushed  his  encroachments  on  the 
holy  things  of  God  to  a detestable  excess,  and  by  a zeal  for  justice 
(but  not  according  to  sense)  combined,  or  rather  confounded,  the  rights 
of  the  State  and  Church,  and  would  make  himself  all  in  all.  The 


6 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


Yet  Mr.  Froudein  “The  English  in  Ireland” 
gives  a glowing  description  of  the  incalculable 
advantages  which  the  barbarous  Celt  derived 
from  the  administration  of  the  cultivated,  en- 
lightened, and  eminently  humane  Norman  prince. 
As  there  are  nearly  as  many  false  statements  as 
there  are  lines  in  each  page,  it  would  be  impos- 
siole  to  refute  them  seriatim.  Mr.  Froude  does 
not  appear  to  have  read  contemporary  history, 
either  English  or  Irish. 

Some  one  has  said  that  a fact  is  always  true 
after  it  has  happened.  It  remained  for  this 
historian  to  evolve  a theory  out  of  his  inner 
consciousness,  and  then  to  compose  an  historical 
narrative  to  support  it.  The  method  is  simple, 
to  a person  of  fertile  imagination  it  is  entertain- 
ing. 

The  Normans  were  perfect,  they  were  “qua- 
lified and  gifted.”* 1  Contemporary  writers  say 
they  were  gifted — gifted  with  no  scanty  share 
of  depravity,  and  qualified  for  any  amount  of 
impiety.2  A cardinal  pronounced  Henry  to  be 


revenues  of  vacant  benefices  he  seized  for  his  treasury  ; and,  as  a slight 
leaven  corrupteth  the  whole  mass,  while  the  treasury  plundered  the 
rights  of  Christ,  the  impious  soldier  receives  what  was  due  to  the 
priest. — Cambrensis  Eversus , p.  483. 

1 The  English  in  Ireland , vol.  1,  p.  16. 

2 John  of  Salisbury  gives  the  following  account  of  another  Norman 
prince: — “During  the  reign,  shall  I call  it,  or  desolating  scourge  of 


Ireland  and  Public  Opinion. 


7 


an  “audacious  liar.”  Count  Thiebault,  of 
Champagne,  warned  an  archbishop  not  to  rely 
on  any  of  his  promises,  no  matter  how  solemnly 
they  were  made.  His  own  son  thus  graphically 
describes  the  family  characteristics  : — “ The 
custom  in  our  family  is  that  the  son  shall  hate 
the  father  ; our  destiny  is  to  detest  each  other ; 
from  the  devil  we  came,  to  the  devil  we  go.” 

Mr.  Froude  has  said  nothing  about  this  ; but 
he  evolves  out  of  his  inner  consciousness  a 
wonderful  account  of  how  he  came  to  Ireland, 
and  what  his  nobles  did  there.  The  Irish  were 
“ vagabonds.”  “ They  were  wild  and  way- 
ward ;ni  but  they  were  not  wayward  long — at 
least  not  in  Mr.  Froude’s  history.  A mar- 
vellous tranquility  came  over  Ireland  when 
the  Normans  landed.  There  was  a whole  cen- 
tury during  which  the  Irish  savage  had  peace 
and  rest  and  justice  and  plenty  (in  the  History 
of  Ireland,  according  to  Froude).  The  poor 

King  Stephen,  over  clergy  and  people,  there  was  a universal  grasping 
of  all  things;  might  was  truly  the  only  law  of  right.  Many  wicked 
things  he  did  ; but  worst  of  all,  his  flying  in  the  face  of  God  and  laying 
violent  hands  upon  his  anointed.  But  the  bishops,  though  the  first, 
were  not  the  only  victims  of  His  fury.  Every  man  on  whom  his  sus- 
picion fell  was  instantly  the  doomed  prey  of  his  treachery.  But  the 
imprisonment  of  the  bishops  was  the  beginning  of  the  evils  of  the  land 
in  his  day,  that  even  a brief  sketch  of  them  would  exceed  the  horrors 
of  Josephus. :: 

1 Th'  English  in  Ireland,  p.  17, 


8 The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

savages  became  “ humane”  and  “ rational,”  and 
all  because  (I  still  quote  this  very  remarkable 
historian)  the  English  in  Ireland  “ did  not 
destroy  the  Irish  people.”1  They  only  “ ham- 
mered” the  heads  of  the  Celts  who  were  un- 
willing to  submit,  and  “ drove  the  chiefs  into 
the  mountains but  it  is  not  explained  how  all 
this  hammering  and  driving  was  carried  out 
peacefully.  Contemporary  historians,  both  Eng- 
lish and  Irish,  give  a very  different  account  to 
Mr.  Froudes,  but  a person  of  fertile  imagina- 
tion does  not  require  authority  for  his  state- 
ments. 

The  Normans  “only  took  the  government  of 
Ireland,”  just  as  a man  would  take  his  hat  and 
cane  to  go  out  for  a walk.  Let  those  who 
doubt  look  at  the  original ; but  this  very  calm 
and  just  and  extremely  dignified  “taking  the 
government”  involved  dispossessing  the  chiefs. 
This  “changed  the  order  of  inheritance  into  an 
orderly  succession,”  according  to  Mr.  Froude  ; 
the  Irish  annals  call  it  driving  out  the  rightful 
owners  and  putting  in  usurpers.  Indeed,  as 
much  is  admitted  in  one  part  of  the  page,  for 
here  he  says  : — “ The  newcomers  rooted  them- 
selves in  the  soil,  built  castles,  gathered  about 


» The  English  in  Ireland,  pp.  z6-ii. 


Ireland  and  Public  Opinion. 


9 


them  retainers  of  their  own  blood , who  over- 
whelmed and  held  down  those  whom  they  forced 
to  be  their  subjects.”1 

In  the  interval,  too,  there  was  “ incessant 
fighting  and  arduous  police  work.”2  Yet  in  the 
next  breath  we  are  assured  all  was  done  peace- 
fully. 

Such  is  the  fashion  in  which  the  Irish  history 
of  the  past  has  been  written,  and  such  being  the 
case,  it  is  little  wonder  that  a very  large  majority 
of  those  who  legislate  for  Ireland  are  absolutely 
ignorant  of  the  people  whom  they  govern. 

But  though  the  history  of  the  past  forms  a 
considerable  element  in  the  discussion  of  the 
events  of  the  present,  there  are  men  who  are 
quite  capable  of  acting  on  present  information. 

But  what  shall  be  said  of  not  merely  suppres- 
sions of  what  would  serve  to  prove  the  cause  of 
the  Irish  tenant,  but  of  actual  and  outrageous 
false  reports. 

One  English  gentleman,  a Protestant,  and,  I 
must  add,  a generous  benefactor  to  our  poor, 
has  been  sending  me  English  papers  regularly 
every  day  for  a year  or  more,  with  Irish  out- 
rages carefully  marked.  It  so  happened  that 
many  of  these  outrages,  I might  say  truly  most 


1 The  English  in  Ireland,  p.  17. 

2 Ibid,  p.  i8. 


io  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

of  them,  had  been  contradicted  previously  in 
Irish  papers.  And  note,  these  contradictions 
were  not  made  anonymously ; they  were  made 
by  the  very  persons  to  whom  they  were  said  to 
have  happened.  But  the  lie  had  got  the  start, 
and  there  was  no  one  to  contradict  it,  and  thou- 
sands of  good  Englishmen  and  women  wrere 
shaking  their  heads  over  the  depravity  of  the 
Irish  people,  when  the  depravity  only  existed 
in  the  wicked  imagination  of  the  original  in- 
ventor of  the  lie.  In  the  Daily  Telegraph  a 
writer  informs  his  readers  that  “ to  abolish 
landlordism  by  shooting  individual  landlords, 
these  are  the  end  and  means  of  the  Land 
League.”  Well,  if  this  is  true,  the  Land 
League  has  been  a complete  failure. 

Ask  the  next  person  you  find  denouncing 
Irish  crimes,  and  talking  as  if  the  Irish  people 
lived  in  a chronic  state  of  landlord-shooting, 
How  many  landlords  have  been  actually  shot? 
He  will  possibly  tell  you  some  hundreds.  You 
cannot  take  up  an  English  paper  in  which  you 
will  not  find  it  stated,  in  the  plainest  language, 
that  murder  and  assassination  and  outrage  is 
the  state  of  Ireland  at  this  moment.  And 
what  is  the  fact  ? Three  landlords  have  been 
killed  during  the  last  twelve  months.  And 
this  is  how  English  gentlemen  misrepresent 


Ireland  and  Public  Opinion . 1 1 

Ireland,  and  try  to  raise  a cry  for  “ coercion.” 
Yet,  if  we  Irish  are  to  believe  English  papers, 
it  is  England  wants  coercion,  unless,  indeed, 
the  life  of  landlords  is  so  incomparably  above 
the  lives  of  other  men  that  there  would  be  no 
comparison  between  the  crime  of  killing  a land- 
lord and  the  crime  of  killing  numbers  of  little 
helpless  children  and  aged  men  and  women,  or 
of  murdering  strong  men  for  mere  gain. 

It  is,  indeed,  a grievous  thing  that  even  one 
landlord  should  have  fallen  a victim  to  the 
assassin  ; but  what  of  the  hundreds  who  have 
fallen  victims  to  English  murderers  ? Is  there 
no  judgment  for  them  ? Is  their  crime  no 
sin  ? 

I know  that  crime  in  England  does  not 
excuse  crime  in  Ireland.  But  it  should  obtain 
some  justice  in  the  consideration  of  Irish 
crime. 

No  wonder  some  crimes  have  been  com- 
mitted in  Ireland  in  consequence  of  the  cruel 
evictions  and  the  cruel  demands  for  rent  from  a 
starving  people.  Many  of  these  “ outrages,” 
as  we  have  said,  are  the  pure  inventions  of 
unscrupulous  men  ; but  many  crimes  have  been 
committed.  But  take  them  at  the  most  and  at 
the  worst.  If  one  is  to  accept  the  reports  of 
the  state  of  England  as  given  in  the  English 


12  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

newspapers,  English  people  ought  to  come  to 
Ireland  for  freedom  from  crime  and  protection 
for  life  and  property ! When  do  we  hear  of 
jewel  and  plate  robberies  in  Ireland,  such  as 
occur  frequently  in  England  and  remain  unde- 
tected ? If  such  crimes  took  place  in  Ireland, 
what  cries  of  righteous  indignation  there  would 
be!  How  fearful  it  would  be  to  live  in  such  a 
country ! Above  all,  how  horrible  for  such 
crimes  to  remain  undetected  ! Every  Irishman 
and  woman  would  share  in  the  odium  for  not 
hunting  out  the  robbers  and  giving  them  up  to 
justice.  But  here  in  this  Ireland,  where  we  are 
supposed  to  be  in  a state  of  chronic  and  horrible 
crime,  Irish  gentlemen  go  to  amuse  themselves 
shooting  in  Scotland,  and  leave  their  houses 
unguarded,  and  their  children  in  the  wilds  of 
Kerry  or  Connemara,  as  the  case  may  be,  sure 
that  they  will  be  safe  and  happy  with  their 
servants  and  tenants. 

And  can  the  Irish  people  fail  to  be  indignant 
at  the  miserable  ingratitude  of  this  class  of  men, 
who  add  to  their  oppression  of  the  people,  with 
whom  they  knew  their  children  may  be  left 
in  safety,  the  most  cruel  calumnies  on  these 
people? 

A great  deal  has  been  said  about  a few  acts 
of  cruelty  to  animals  in  Ireland  ; but  what  of 


Ireland  and  Public  Opinion.  \ 3 

the  reports  in  the  London  papers  of  prosecu- 
tions for  acts  of  the  most  wanton  and  utterly 
uncalled-for  cruelty  to  dumb  and  defenceless 
beasts  ? It  need  scarcely  be  said  that  cruelty 
in  England  to  the  brute  creation  does  not 
excuse  cruelty  in  Ireland;  but  those  who  con- 
demn the  one  ought  to  condemn  the  other 
equally.  And  what  of  the  wholesale  cruelty 
committed  on  human  beings  in  Ireland,  when 
in  this  famine  year  they  were  left  with  little 
concern  half  starving,  when  a pitiful  dole  of 
food,  only  fit  for  dogs,  was  all  that  would 
be  ofiven  to  them  ? 

o 

Here  is  an  English  account  from  the  Daily 
Telegraph , of  a few  days  ago,  of  the  state  of 
affairs  in  England.  Let  us  suppose  for  one 
moment  that  such  a state  of  affairs  could  by 
any  possibility  be  reported  as  happening  in  any 
part  of  Ireland,  and  what  a cry  there  would  be 
for  “ coercion,”  and  for  “ strong  measures,”  and 
the  suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act,  and, 
above  all,  for  that  exercise  of  u firmness  ” on 
the  part  of  the  Government,  which,  during  the 
famine,  was  supposed  too  often  to  be  the  proper 
course  to  be  adopted  when  we  were  starving 
for  bread,  and  which  is  now  declared  to  be  the 
one  thing  necessary  for  the  Government  of 
Ireland,  when  those  who  have  been  supported, 


14  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 

or,  to  speak  more  correctly,  have  been  enabled 
to  exist  during  the  famine  year  on  public  cha- 
rity, cannot  pay  their  rents. 

If  “ firmness  ” was  justice  to  tenants  and  the 
poor,  Ireland  would  soon  be  wealthy.  But 
here  is  an  English  account  of  the  state 
England . 

We  confess  to  rubbing  our  eyes,  and  wonder- 
ing if  Blackheath  and  Lewisham  had  slipped  in 
by  mistake  for  Belfast  and  Cork.  But  we  do 
not  know  that  an  English  paper  has  yet  declared 
that  we  are  obliged  to  go  to  sleep  in  Ireland 
fully  armed. 

“The  good  people  o'f  Blackheath  and  Lewisham  are 
already  alive  to  the  necessity  of  going  to  sleep  fully  armed, 
and  the  inhabitants  of  that  district  should  by  this  time  think 
no  more  of  hearing  a pistol  shoe  in  the  night  than  they 
might  of  the  deceitful  croak  of  the  ventriloquial  corn-crake. 
If  all  this  banging  of  firearms  lately  heard  had  led  to  the 
arrest  of  a single  burglar,  so  much  gunpowder  would  not 
have  been  exploded  in  vain.  Unfortunately,  the  thieves 
remain  more  free  than  welcome.  Sometimes  the  police  are 
on  the  spot,  and  occasionally  the  citizen  has  to  fight  his 
enemies  unsupported  and  unsustained.  About  two  o’clock 
on  the  morning  of  Monday,  Constable  Mooney,  34  R,  had 
an  exciting  conflict  with  a couple  of  intending  burglars  at 
Westcombe  Park,  Blackheath.  The  ruffians  carried  firearms, 
which  they  did  not  hesitate  to  use,  and  the  brave  officer, 
who  Avas  struck  on  the  head  and  stunned,  and  whose  pluck 
and  determination  will,  no  doubt,  have  due  recognition  at 


Ireland  and  Public  Opinion.  1 5 

the  hands  of  his  official  superiors,  narrowly  escaped  being 
shot  dead.  Almost  at  the  same  time  when  the  policeman 
was  being  shot  at,  in  the  execution  of  his  duty  at  Black- 
heath,  young  Mr.  Hopkins,  son  of  a clerk  in  the  Bank  of 
England,  was  engaged  in  what  might  easily  have  proved  a 
deadly  struggle  with  a burglar,  in  his  father’s  home  at  Lewis- 
ham. The  brave  lad  was  awakened  from  his  sleep  by  hear- 
ing a noise  in  the  room.  He  jumped  up  to  lay  hold  of  the 
intruder,  but  was  suddenly  seized  by  the  throat  and  half 
strangled.  Contriving  to  escape  the  grasp  of  his  assailant, 
he  obtained  a loaded  revolver  from  a drawer  in  the  room, 
and  fired  it  point  blank  at  the  burglar.  The  pistol  missed 
fire,  just  as  the  ruffian  returned  the  shot,  and  a ball  passed 
through  the  young  man’s  shirt.  As  the  burglar  retreated 
through  the  window,  Mr.  Hopkins  fired  another  barrel,  this 
time  taking  effect.  The  wounded  scoundrel,  however, 
managed  to  escape,  leaving  a gold  watch  behind  him.” 

After  making  all  possible  allowance  for  sensa- 
tional writing,  which  seems  inevitable  at  the 
present  day,  and  which  will  save  future  his- 
torians of  the  Froude  stamp  the  trouble  of 
drawing  on  their  imagination,  there  must  be  an 
underlying  truth  which  shows  the  state  of  Eng- 
land to  be  very  dangerous.  But  suppose  some 
foreign  writers  were  to  write  of  the  state  of 
England,  even  on  such  grave  ground,  in  the 
same  fashion  in  which  English  writers  expatiate 
on  the  state  of  Ireland,  with  what  cries  of  indig- 
nation they  would  be  met ! 

To  write  sensationally  of  crime  in  England 


1 6 The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 

would  do  no  practical  harm,  and  certainly  would 
not  affect  the  lives  or  liberties  of  Englishmen  ; 
but  to  write  sensationally  and  untruthfully  of 
Ireland  is  a very  different  matter.  To  do  this 
is  to  help  to  continue  a state  of  things  in 
Ireland  which  has  been  denounced  even  by 
English  statesmen,  and  it  is  to  bring  cruel 
suffering  on  a people  who  have  already  suffered 
cruelly. 

The  Graphic  of  October  says  : — 

“ Burglaries  around  London  are  as  numerous  as  ever,  not- 
withstanding the  fact  that  extra  police  patrols  and  plain- 
clothes men  have  been  placed  on  duty  in  the  various  districts. 
The  Home  Secretary  has  offered  a reward  of  ,£ioo  for  the 
conviction  of  the  recent  burglaries  and  attempted  murders 
at  Lewisham  and  BlaCkheath,  with  a free  pardon  to  any 
accomplices.  It  is  said  that  the  announcement  contains  a 
special  clause  excluding  policemen  from  participation  in  the 
reward.  Robberies  from  churches  and  schools  have  also 
been  very  frequent  in  the  Southern  suburbs,  and  three  young 
men  have  been  arrested  on  suspicion  of  being  concerned  in 
them.” 

And  we  are  also  informed  that  Mr.  Gladstone 
was  robbed  of  jewels  at  Hanbury  Hall.  What 
a state  of  social  disorder  and  crime  all  this 
reveals ! It  is  no  pleasure  to  record  all  this ; 
but  it  is  as  much  justice  to  England  as  to 
Ireland  to  do  so. 

I believe  the  extent  to  which  falsehood  is 


Ireland  and  Public  Opinion.  1 7 

circulated  about  Ireland  is  not  even  imagined 
in  England.  And  now  this  systematic  habit  of 
lying  about  Irish  affairs  is  extending  itself  to 
the  Continent.  But,  let  England  beware  ; to- 
day it  gives  continental  writers  the  whole  weight 
of  its  example  and  approbation  in  lying  about 
Ireland.  The  lesson  will  be  remembered  ; and 
by-and-by,  when  England  in  her  hour  of  need 
and  danger  is  met  with  a similar  fate,  she  will 
have  only  herself  to  thank. 

Once  again , let  me  ask — is  this  English 
honour f 

Is  it,  then,  honourable  to  lie  systematically  ? 
Is  it  honourable,  when  the  lie  is  refuted,  to  re- 
fuse to  admit  the  denial  of  the  falsehood?  We 
can  quite  understand  how  a false  report  may 
find  admission  into  any  paper.  But  when  false 
reports  come  to  be  habitually  inserted,  it  looks 
like  malice  and  deliberate  fraud.  When  it 
becomes  habitual  to  refuse  to  deny  false  reports, 
there  can  be  no  question  that  they  are  deliberate. 
Were  such  reports  purely  a matter  of  accident, 
honourable  men  would  rejoice  to  see  them  con- 
tradicted, for  honourable  men  do  not  love  lying. 

French  correspondents  are  now  turning  their 
attention  to  Ireland ; and,  strange  to  say,  it  is 
the  infidel  and  communistic  press  that  is  all  in 
favour  of  England's  oppression  of  Ireland. 

B 


1 8 The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 

Happy  Ireland  ! She  secures  the  hatred  of  the 
wicked.  She  is  too  good,  too  pure,  too  holy  for 
their  foul  tongues  to  name  her,  except  with 
scorn.  Men  who,  forsooth,  make  a love  of 
liberty  their  boast,  cry  out  for  coercion  for  Ire- 
land. 

As  I am  about  to  reply  by  facts  to  the 
calumnies  published  in  the  Debats  by  M.  de 
Molinari,  I will  say  no  more  here.  My  reply 
will  appear  shortly  in  the  Univers. 

A few  persons  may  be  deceived  about  Ireland 
by  these  landlord  misrepresentations ; but  the 
people  of  Europe,  the  people  of  America — all 
civilized  nations  and  peoples  see  that  it  is  to  the 
eternal  discredit  of  England  that  Ireland  should 
be  in  such  a state.  England,  which  boasts  of 
her  learning,  and  her  position,  and  her  honour ! 
what  a discredit  that  she  keeps  Ireland  for 
centuries  in  misery  ; that  now,  in  this  nineteenth 
century,  Ireland  is  as  poor,  as  subject  to  famine, 
as  discontented  as  she  was  300  years  ago  ! 

And  foreign  countries  are  not  slow  to  see 
where  the  fault  lies,  or  to  see  that  the  only  re- 
medy offered  by  England,  or  rather  by  a small 
and  exclusive  class  of  Englishmen  like  Froude 
and  Disraeli  and  statesmen  of  this  class,  is 
“ coercion.”  Coercion  ! why  England  has  been 
trying  coercion  with  Ireland  for  700  years,  and 


Ireland  and  Public  Opinion.  1 9 

it  has  not  yet  effected  any  improvement  in  the 
country.  Might  it  not,  then,  be  well  for  Eng- 
land to  try  something  else,  at  least  by  way  of 
experiment. 

When  England  first  invaded  Ireland,  she  tried 
coercion.  The  Irish  were  hunted  down  like 
dogs,  sold  like  slaves,  treated  like  beasts  ; but 
all  this  coercion  did  not  make  the  country  any 
the  more  prosperous,  nor  did  the  English 
settlers  themselves  gain  anything  by  it. 

When  England  thought  proper  to  change  her 
religion,  Ireland,  of  course,  was  expected  to 
follow,  and  coercion  was  tried  again  and  again, 
but  to  no  purpose.  Englishmen  got  no  benefit 
by  it,  nor  did  English  settlers  in  Ireland  benefit 
by  it.  This  is  the  first  point  which  honest 
Englishmen  should  consider  : Ireland  has  been 
governed  by  coercion  for  hundreds  of  years,  and 
no  good  has  been  gained  by  it. 

Whenever  Ireland  rebelled  ever  so  little 
against  misgovernment  “ coercion”  was  the 
remedy.  It  is  as  if  you  half-starved  a man  and 
then  flogged  him  for  complaining. 

A famine  came  to  Ireland  in  this  last  year, 
and  because  the  people  have  complained  of  the 
causes  they  are  to  be  “ coerced”  again.  What 
do  honest  Englishmen  say  to  this  ? I know 
what  they  will  say.  They  will  say  they  will  not 


20  The  Case  oj  Ireland  stated. 

allow  it  ; they  will  stand  up  in  their  power  and 
forbid  it ; they  will  not  fling  away  their  character 
for  justice  because  a few  Irish  landlords  will  not 
act  with  common  humanity. 

They  may  indeed,  for  want  of  better  infor- 
mation, believe  all  the  evil  recorded  of  Ireland 
in  the  past,  but  their  intellect,  and  perhaps 
their  hearts,  are  sufficiently  large  to  let  that 
pass,  and  act  in  the  present.  For  such  persons 
it  is  all  important  that  they  should  be  correctly 
informed  as  to  the  present  state  of  Ireland,  and 
yet  we  can  show  from  indisputable  sources  that 
they  cannot  obtain  reliable  information  from  the 
press  ; yet  it  is  precisely  to  the  press  that  such 
persons  look  for  information.  And  let  this  one 
point  be  carefully  noted,  for  it  is  of  supreme 
moment  to  England  as  well  as  to  Ireland. 
Though  some  just-minded  Englishmen  may  be 
content  to  let  the  dead  past  bury  its  dead,  yet 
they  believe  Irish  history  as  narrated  by  Froude 
and  other  historians  of  his  class.  Hence,  they 
are  quite  prepared  to  believe  reports  of  out- 
rages, because  they  expect  nothing  else  from 
Ireland.  Then,  when  false  reports,  when  ima- 
ginary murders  or  cruelties  are  narrated  with 
all  appearance  of  truthfulness  by  the  press,  they 
are,  so  to  say,  naturally  believed.  It  is  only 
what  previous  education  has  led  the  public  to 


Ireland  and  Public  Opinion . 2 1 

expect ; the  public,  therefore,  readily  accepts  as 
true  what,  under  other  circumstances,  it  would 
think  twice  before  it  would  believe. 

But  in  a question  which  involves  such  grave 
issues,  surely  truth  should  be  the  first  object. 

There  is  one  important  point  besides  delibe- 
rate misrepresentation  of  Ireland,  and  that  is 
deliberate  and  wilful  suppression  of  truth.  To 
suppress  truth  is  to  act  a lie,  because  the  sup- 
pression is  a deliberate  act.  I now  pro- 
ceed to  give  examples  of  actual  and  most 
mischievous  suppression  of  truth. 

The  Daily  Telegraph , an  organ  of  English 
opinion  read  by  thousands,  perhaps  by  a million, 
of  just  the  very  class  who  most  need  to  know 
the  truth  about  Ireland,  has  articles  frequently 
on  Irish  affairs.  No  doubt  it  is  necessary  for 
an  English  newspaper  at  the  present  day  to  be 
sensational.  The  Daily  Telegraphy  I must 
admit,  is  as  sensational  on  the  real  crimes  which 
happen  in  England  as  on  the  imaginary  outrages 
that  do  not  happen  in  Ireland.  But  people  are 
only  amused  at  the  sensationalism  as  far  as 
England  is  concerned ; as  for  Irish  affairs, 
Englishmen  are  so  entirely  ignorant  of  them 
that  they  take  all  this  sensational  outcry  as  true. 

Thus  what  amuses  people  in  the  one  case 
does  a positive  and  most  grave  injury  in  the  other 


22  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

case.  It  is  a very  serious  matter  to  write  what 
will  mislead  people  on  a very  important  subject. 

The  Daily  Telegraph  for  October  nth  has 
an  article  on  Ireland.  It  treats  of  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Dublin,  of  Mr.  Parnell,  of  the  Com- 
mission, of  the  Land  League,  and  I do  not 
know  what  else  besides.  So  far  good.  These 
are  all  subjects  of  public  interest.  It  com- 
mences with  the  bitterest  attacks  on  Ireland, 
and  recommends  “ coercion  n as  the  only  remedy, 
and  it  ends  with  a quite  candid  admission  of 
Irish  grievances,  or  rather  of  Irish  wrongs. 
This  is  precisely  how  the  more  honest  class  of 
English  newspapers  write.  They  dare  not  say 
out  boldly  that  Irish  landlords  are  determined 
to  prevent  the  enactment  of  laws  which  would 
prevent  oppression.  So  they  begin  their  lead- 
ers with  bitter  taunts  against  Ireland,  and  before 
they  get  to  the  end,  their  honesty  is  too  much 
for  them,  and  they  admit  the  truth. 

The  Daily  Telegraph  did  incalculable  benefit 
to  Ireland  in  the  famine  by  its  truthful  account 
of  the  state  of  the  country.  Why  has  its  editor 
not  the  courage  now  to  report  on  the  state  of 
the  Irish  land  laws  ? Probably  because  he 
dare  not  be  truthful,  and  he  does  not  wish  to 
be  false.  The  article  commences  with  a criti- 
cism of  Dr.  McCabe’s  Pastoral  Letter. 


Ireland  and  Public  Opinion.  23 

Now,  here  is  one  instance  of  the  suppression 
of  truth  which  is  carried  out  so  largely  in  Eng- 
lish papers,  and  which  is  not  creditable  to  the 
honour  or  honesty  of  England,  Why  should 
anything  be  suppressed  if  people  are  not  afraid 
to  tell  the  truth  ? Why  should  a letter,  or  a 
leader  in  a paper,  or  a report,  or  a speech  give 
some  bits  of  extracts  because  they  suit  the 
views  of  the  English  people  ? And  why  should 
bits  be  omitted  that  would  tell  strongly  on  the 
other  side  ? 

In  the  condensed  summary  of  news  which  is 
the  vade-mecum  of  so  many  hurried  English 
readers,  a bit  is  given  from  the  pastoral  to  tell 
against  the  Land  League  ; but  one  of  the  most 
important  bits  is  not  given — one  which  should 
be  written  in  letters  of  gold  and  put  before  every 
Englishman  as  the  pronouncement  of  a distin- 
guished Irish  prelate  who  condemns  all  agitation 
that  seems  even  to  hint  at  violence  even  in 
words.  His  Grace  says  : — 

“ The  periodic  famines  with  which  our  people  are  con- 
tinually threatened,  the  insecurity  of  their  land  tenure, 
which  paralyses  the  most  industrious  hands,  and  the 
wretched  condition  of  thousands  of  families,  whose  domestic 
arrangements  might  test  the  temper  of  a Slave  Coast 
African — all  proclaim  that  our  land  laws  require  a prompt 
and  thorough  revision.  On  this  point  we  are  all  united. 
All  agree  that  if  peace  and  security  are  to  be  firmly  estab- 


24  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

lished  amongst  us,  it  must  be  by  the  hand  which  blots  out 
those  odious  laws  that  constitute  the  character  of  oppres- 
sion.” 

Now,  this  is  an  old  story.  Whenever  an 
Irish  Catholic  prelate  says  anything  which 
English  writers  think  will  tell  on  their  side  he 
is  quoted  with  qualified  approbation.  The 
approbation  in  this  case  is  qualified  by  strongly 
expressed  remarks  about  the  clerical  inferiority 
of  Irish  priests.  This  is  no  new  proceeding. 
In  the  year  1797  the  then  Catholic  Bishop  of 
Cork  addressed  a pastoral  to  his  people  im- 
ploring them  not  to  join  the  French,  who  were 
landing  in  Bantry  Bay,  but  to  remain  faithful 
and  loyal  to  the  English  Government.  So  im- 
portant was  this  pastoral  considered,  and  of 
such  immense  value  was  it  to  the  Government 
of  the  day,  that  4,000  copies  were  printed  and 
circulated  by  the  Government. 

The  Lord  Lieutenant  notices  the  “ useful 
impression”  which  was  made  by  this  “judicious 
address,”  in  a despatch  which  was  published  in 
the  London  Gazette  of  17th  July,  1797;  but  we 
do  not  hear  that  any  further  acknowledgment 
was  made  of  the  bishop’s  services.  But  it  mat- 
tered little  to  one  who  sought  no  temporal 
reward  for  doing  what  he  believed  to  be  his 
duty. 


Ireland  and  Public  Opinion . 25 

Lord  Bantry  got  his  peerage  for  being  the 
first  to  inform  the  Government  that  the  fleet 
was  sighted  in  Bantry  Bay. 

The  Bishop  was  made  use  of,  and  neither  he 
nor  his  people  received  any  consideration  ; nor 
was  the  matter  made,  as  it  should  have  been, 
a reason  for  helping  the  Irish  people  to  more 
justice  in  religion  or  legal  rights. 

Now,  there  are  four  subjects  on  which  the 
whole  question  of  the  state  of  Ireland  turns. 
The  first  and  most  important  question  is,  no 
doubt,  the  relations  between  landlords  and 
tenants.  The  next  is  the  relations  between 
those  who  hold  the  reins  of  the  immediate 
government  of  Ireland.  The  third  subject  is 
the  all-important  one  of  the  general  social 
state  of  the  people,  and  it  includes  the  very 
grave  and  very  important  question  of  Tem- 
perance. The  fourth  subject  is  the  state  of  the 
industrial  resources  and  trade  of  Ireland. 


26 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


CHAPTER  II. 

LANDLORD  AND  TENANT. 

“The  Habeas  Corpus  Act  had  been  suspended  in  the  country  in 
1800,  from  1802  till  1805,  from  1807  till  1810,  in  1814,  and  from  1821 
to  1824.  There  were  select  committees  upon  Ireland  almost  every 
year  since  the  Union.  Whenever  disturbances  arose,  and  distress 
appeared,  Coercion  Acts  were  passed,  and  select  committees  appointed. 
Nothing  more  was  done.”  — O'Brien — Land  Question. 


RELAND  is  exclusively  an  agricultural 
country  ; hence  the  Land  Question  in 
Ireland  has  necessarily  an  importance 
which  it  has  not  in  England.  It  is  no  doubt  a 
subject  of  surprise  to  many  persons  in  England 
why  there  is  this  persistent  agitation  about  land. 
But  land  is  the  one  object  of  trade,  commerce, 
and  commercial  speculation  in  Ireland.  We 
have  used  the  expression  commercial  specu- 
lation advisedly,  because  it  underlies  all  the 
subjects  of  discussion.  I will  not  reproach 
England  with  having  reduced  Ireland  to  this 
pitiable  extremity,  and  a pitiable  extremity 
it  is.  In  the  present  state  of  society,  in  our 
advanced  stage  of  civilization,  no  country  can 


Landlord  and  Tenant . 


27 


become  wealthy  which  depends  exclusively  on 
agriculture.  Civilization,  such  as  we  under- 
stand the  term  at  the  present  day,  requires 
artificial  conveniences,  if  not  conventional  luxu- 
ries, such  as  never  existed,  and  therefore  were 
never  desired,  in  a primitive  state.  The  earth 
was  tilled  then  to  procure  necessary  food, 
and  cultivated  to  procure  necessary  raiment. 
Nature  yields  to  our  demands  so  far,  but  when 
we  endeavour  to  press  a further  return  we  fail 
to  obtain  it. 

Ireland,  being,  then,  virtually  a purely  agri- 
cultural country,  and  this  to  a degree  which  is 
not  found  in  any  civilized  nation  in  the  world, 
will  give  a yield  of  ordinary  food  and  clothing 
to  her  population  ; but,  if  pressed  beyond  this, 
there  is  anarchy  and  disorder.  A moderate 
return  of  income  can  be  obtained  from  land, 
which  will  enable  the  toiler  to  live,  and  allow 
something  for  the  proprietor  as  well  ; but 
where  more  is  demanded,  then  nature  revolts, 
and  the  usurer  suffers.  Why,  then,  should  usury 
be  permitted  in  land  commerce,  when  it  is  for- 
bidden in  every  other  commerce  ? 

All  the  laws  against  usury  have  been  re- 
pealed, but  notwithstanding  their  repeal,  Courts 
of  Equity  give  relief  against  unconscionable  bar- 
gains where  the  parties  are  not  on  equal  terms. 


28  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

No  civilized  government  will  tolerate  the 
practice  of  usury,  because  all  experience  shows 
that  it  is  a doubtful  gain  to  one,  while  it  is  a 
certain  ruin  to  many. 

But  let  us  suppose  that  usury  was  permitted 
in  any  nation,  and  that  only  one  commercial 
industry  was  open  to  that  nation,  is  it  not  a fore- 
gone conclusion  that  a universal  national  bank- 

o 

ruptcy  must  ensue. 

But  this  is  precisely  what  has  happened  in 
Ireland.  For  years,  and  at  the  present  time, 
the  practice  of  usury  in  Irish  commerce 
exists,  and  until  it  is  legally  forbidden  Ireland 
will  continue  poor,  and  as  a necessary  con- 
sequence discontented. 

In  Ireland  when  a man  has  any  capital  to 
invest  commercially,  he  must  speculate  in  land  ; 
with  the  miserable  exception  of  the  whiskey 
trade,  there  is  scarcely  one  Irish  manufacture 
in  which  capital  can  be  invested.  Hence, 
usury  and  usurious  competition  in  land — the 
ruin  of  the  entire  nation. 

In  a letter  to  the  Chicago  Tribune , the  Mar- 
quis of  Lansdowne,  replying  to  an  accusation 
made  against  him  as  to  the  management  of  his 
estates,  says : “ There  are  in  three  counties 
alone  about  54,000  holdings,  valued  at  or  under 
£\  a year.  Such  holdings  are  manifestly  too 


Landlord  and  Tenant. 


2Q 


small  to  support  a man  and  his  family  in  com- 
fort and  respectability.”  This  is  a grave  state- 
ment made  on  very  high  authority.  Multiply 
this  54,000  by  five  or  seven,  and  look  at  the 
number  of  persons  who,  in  these  counties  alone, 
are  living  in  a state  of  chronic  misery,  and  then 
say  is  there  not  cause  for  Irish  discontent. 

Then,  let  it  be  remembered,  that  these  men 
are  liable  at  any  moment  to  find  themselves 
still  further  sunk  in  misery  by  an  increase  of 
rent.  For  the  moment  we  must  ask  you  to 
take  it  for  granted  that  such  an  increase  of  rent 
is  not  only  possible,  but  probable ; of  this  we 
can  and  will  give  ample  proof.  Let  us  sup- 
pose, what  happens  every  day  in  Ireland,  that 
one  of  these  54,000  men  improves  his  land  with 
infinite  toil  and  labour ; his  rent  is  too  often 
raised,  and  he  is  taxed  for  his  expenditure 
of  his  only  capital — his  labour.  But  it  will 
be  said  Mr.  Gladstone's  Act  at  once  provides  for 
this,  and  he  will  get  compensation.  Compensa- 
tion ! And  what  can  compensate  a man  for 
being  ejected  from  his  home — what  can  com- 
pensate a man  for  the  bitterness  of  his  heart 
when  he  sees  his  years  of  toil  taken  from  him, 
and  the  place  to  which  he  had  become  attached, 
even  from  the  very  anxiety  and  care  which  it 
gave  him,  passing  into  other  hands  ? What  is 


30  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 

he  to  do  ? where  is  he  to  go  ? He  has  his 
choice  between  the  workhouse  and  emigration, 
between  exile  from  a country  to  which  he  is 
passionately  attached,  and  a living  tomb. 

And  all  this  is  possible,  all  this  happens  daily 
in  every  part  of  Ireland,  because  usury  in  land 
is  not  forbidden  by  English  law. 

The  landlord  who  evicts  the  tenant,  whether 
he  be  a noble  lord  or  a country  shop-keeper, 
has  the  same  object  in  view.  He  wants  money. 
He  wants  to  get  from  the  land  what  the  land 
cannot  give.  He  wants  to  get  what  the  culti- 
vator cannot  give  if  he  is  to  exist,  as  the 
Marquis  of  Lansdowne  has  said,  “ in  comfort 
and  respectability.” 

Now,  if  the  landlord  knew  that  usury  in  land 
was  not  permitted  by  law  he  would  not  do  this. 
He  knows  very  well  if  he  evicts  Patrick  Daly 
to-day  because  he  will  not  pay  him  a usurious 
rent,  that  Thade  M‘Carthy  will  take  the  land 
at  that  usurious  rent  to-morrow,  and  why  ? 
Because  Thade  McCarthy  has  no  other  re- 
source, because  he  has  no  other  way  whatever 
of  speculating,  because  he  has  a growing  family, 
and  he  persuades  himself  that  he  will  be  more 
successful  than  Patrick  Daly,  that  he  will  make 
the  land  pay  him  a profit  after  he  has  paid  the 
usurious  rent.  When  Lord  Lansdowne’s  state- 


Landlord  and  Tenant  3 1 

ment  is  remembered,  it  is  but  too  clear  that 
Thade  McCarthy  cannot  do  this.  But  he  has 
tried  to  do  it ; he  pays  the  new  rent  for  a year 
or  so,  and  in  his  turn  is  evicted,  or  lives  on,  a 
miserable,  discontented,  unhappy  life — now 
making  some  spasmodic  effort  to  pay  “ the  rent,” 
and  now  getting  deeper  into  debt  and  nearer 
final  ruin. 

Perhaps  in  his  intense  desire  to  keep  the  land, 
a desire  well  known,  and  much,  unhappily,  calcu- 
lated on  by  landlords,  he  gets  help  from  some 
of  his  “ boys”  who  go  to  America,  or  some  of 
his  girls  who  go  to  service  in  England  ; but  such 
help,  though  it  may  silence  the  clamour  of  the 
land  agent,  is  in  fact  only  adding  to  the  general 
bankruptcy  of  Ireland.  The  “ boys”  may  con- 
tinue the  help  for  a few  years,  they  marry,  and 
have  their  own  families  to  support.  The  girls 
go  to  America,  and  in  the  end  either  get  the  old 
father  and  mother  out  to  them,  or  send  them 
a trifle,  when  they  are  in  turn  evicted,  to  save 
them  from  utter  destitution. 

How  much  better  then  would  it  be  for  the 
general  prosperity  of  the  country,  for  the  land- 
lord as  well  as  the  tiller  of  the  soil,  if  usury 
was  forbidden  by  law. 

Unhappily  the  desire  of  undue  and  covetous 
gain  is  not  confined  to  Ireland.  In  England 


32  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 

the  Legislature  had  to  interfere  to  prevent 
manufacturers  from  over- working,  from  actually- 
destroying  the  lives  of  helpless  women  and 
children.  Why,  then,  should  not  English  law 
equally  protect  Irish  tenants? 

A great  deal  has  been  said  in  English  papers 
about  Irish  agrarian  outrages.  Here  is  their 
source  and  their  cause.  Remove  the  source, 
remove  the  cause,  and  you  at  once  put  an  end 
to  the  outrages.  It  is  the  wild  justice  of 
revenge.  The  Land  League  is  credited  with 
doing  what  ought  to  be  done  by  English  law. 
Strange  that  this  should  be  made  a cause  of 
complaint.  The  Land  League  is  credited  with 
organizing  a paid  resistance  to  capricious  or 
unjust  increase  of  rent.  It  is  credited  with  in- 
citing 66  outrages  ” on  the  persons  of  those  who 
take  farms  from  which  men  have  been  evicted 
because  they  could  not  pay  usurious  rent. 
It  is  credited  with  protecting  the  many  against 
the  avarice  of  the  few,  and  of  using,  to  do  this, 
the  wild  justice  of  revenge. 

Yet  the  whole  Irish  nation,  with  the  exception 
of  the  avaricious  few,  are  imploring  the  English 
people  for  years  to  protect  them  by  law.  When 
protection  by  law  is  refused,  are  people  to  be 
branded  as  rebels  and  rioters  if  they  try  to  pro- 
tect themselves.  The  raison  d'etre  of  the  Land 


Landlord  and  Tenant. 


33 


League  would  cease  to-morrow,  if  to-morrow 
saw  a bill  passed  through  the  English  Parlia- 
ment for  the  protection  of  Irish  tenants. 

Strange  and  amazing  inconsistency!  The  Irish 
people  are  spoken  of  by  the  English  people  at 
large  as  if  they  existed  only  to  break  the  law ; 
and  yet  what  is  the  fact  ? The  Irish  nation  for 
centuries  have  been  imploring  the  English 
nation  to  protect  them  by  law ! 

One  is  almost  weary  of  hearing  it  said,  that 
History  repeats  itself,  and,  in  truth,  it  does  ; 
but  how  few  profit  by  the  experience  thus 
gained.  Certainly  politicians  seem,  of  all 
others,  the  slowest  to  do  so.  The  History  of 
Ireland  has  repeated  itself  over  and  over  again, 
yet  the  same  methods  which  failed  in  the  days 
of  the  Norman  invasion  are  repeated  as  if  they 
had  then  succeeded  to  admiration. 

If  there  is  no  advantage  to  England  in  having 
Ireland  in  a chronic  state  of  rebellion,  surely 
there  should  be  the  calmest  consideration  of 
past  methods,  and  the  most  careful  comparison 
of  cause  and  effect.  But  no,  there  is  still  the 
same  fatal  policy. 

Whenever  any  public  event  or  calamity 
occurs  which  makes  Irish  chronic  distress  more 
severely  felt  in  Ireland,  there  is  “ agitation,” 
which  naturally  and  necessarily  culminates  in 

c 


34  1 he  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

more  or  less  violence.  To  expect  a people 
who  have  a serious  cause  of  complaint,  and  who 
have  had  this  cause  for  centuries,  to  agitate 
without  some  violence,  is  to  expect  them  to  act 
like  angels  rather  than  like  men.  Hence  the 
extreme  injustice  of  the  loud  outcry  that  has 
been  made  whenever  acts  of  violence  accom- 
pany agitation  in  Ireland. 

Those  who  make  this  outcry  forget  the 
fearful  acts  of  violence  which,  even  in  the 
present  century,  accompanied  public  agitation 
in  England.  To  denounce  the  Irish  people  for 
acts  of  violence  in  moments  of  political  excite- 
ment is  adding  injustice  to  inhumanity.  I 
would  ask  a very  careful  consideration  of  this 
point.  The  outrages  committed  in  England 
by  trades  unionists  are  within  living  memory. 
They  were  of  a most  serious  character,  quite 
as  serious — indeed,  far  more  serious — than  any 
outrages  committed  during  the  present  agita- 
tion in  Ireland.  They  excited  terror  from 
end  to  end  of  England ; but  as  there  were 
no  party  politics  concerned,  when  the  agita- 
tion ceased,  there  was  an  end  of  the  reproach. 
It  was  as  if  a few  members  of  a family  rebelled 
at  unjust  treatment  from  the  rest.  Family  ties 
are  too  strong  to  be  easily  severed.  But 
how  differently  is  all  Irish  agitation  treated. 


Landlord  and  Tenant . 


35 


Here  it  is  not  question  of  one  family  or  of 
one  nationality,  it  is  made  a question  of  race 
against  race.  The  trades  union  outrages  were, 
as  we  said,  quite  as  horrible  as  those  of  which 
we  are  accused,  and  which  have  not  been 
committed  in  Ireland — more  horrible  than  any 
which  have  really  happened  here.  This  is  no 
matter  of  opinion  or  conjecture,  as  those  who 
remember  the  circumstances  know  but  too 
well. 

Animals  were  cruelly  tortured  and  were  even 
burned  alive.  By  an  almost  inhuman  device 
of  cruelty,  needles  were  placed  by  thou- 
sands in  the  clay  for  making  bricks,  so  that 
obnoxious  workmen  might  be  injured  in  the 
most  terrible  manner.  Nor  were  women  spared, 
as  they  most  certainly  are  in  Ireland.  One  was 
killed,  another  was  blinded,  and  yet  another 
was  saved  from  a fearful  death  by  being  flung 
out  from  a window  naked.  The  great  instigator 
and  head  of  all  this  fearful  violence,  William 
Broadhead,  was  proved  to  have  paid  a man  to 
murder  another,  and  it  was  proved  in  evidence 
that  men  who  had  no  personal  quarrel  whatever 
with  their  victims,  were  obliged  to  mutilate 
them  and  to  inflict  horrible  punishments. 

No  one  thinks  now  of  reproaching  the  people 
of  Sheffield  or  Manchester  for  those  crimes, 


36  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated, 

simply  because  there  is  no  political  or  other 
purpose  to  serve  in  doing  so.  And  people 
came  to  see  that  bad  as  these  crimes  were,  they 
were  in  some  degree  like  the  violence  of  fever. 
It  was  better  to  find  out  the  cause,  and  try  to 
remedy  that,  than  to  think  too  much  of  the 
excesses. 

There  is  unquestionably  a remarkable  coinci- 
dence of  cause  between  the  trades  union  com- 
bination and  the  present  state  of  Ireland.  In 

both  cases  it  is  a revolt  of  labour  against 

<_> 

capital.  Labour  wanted  its  magna  charta . 
In  ancient  times  there  was  no  law  for  the 
labourer,  and  to  say  truth,  scant  justice. 
Men  were  compelled  to  work  by  English  law 
whether  they  would  or  not.  Even  in  the  time 
of  Elizabeth  every  act  of  legislation  was  in 
favour  of  the  master,  and  against  the  man. 
The  law  was  altogether  against  the  trades,  and 
the  trades,  as  an  inevitable  consequence, 
against  the  law.  Public  opinion  was  against 
the  trades  also,  and  these  acts  of  violence 
did  not  tend  to  conciliate  public  opinion.  It 
was  on  a question  of  the  deepest  gravity, 
and  turned  on  the  one  point — had  a man  the 
right  to  value  his  own  labour  or  had  he  not  ? 
In  other  words,  was  he  to  work  under  a modified 
form  of  slavery,  or  was  he  to  be  a free  agent  ? 


Landlord  and  Tenant. 


37 


The  question  is  precisely  the  one  asked  now 
in  Ireland.  If  the  question  had  been  settled 
in  England  by  leaving  all  the  power  in  the  hands 
of  the  employers  and  capitalists,  there  would 
have  been  a revolution  in  England. 

The  Irish  labourer  and  farmer  ask  now  that 
justice  shall  be  done  in  Ireland  between  labour 
and  capital.  We  heard  a great  deal  some  years 
ago  of  this  or  that  being  un-English.  Is  it  not 
un-English  to  refuse  the  calm  consideration  of 
such  a question,  to  make  too  much  of  the  under- 
lying cause,  and  to  think  superficially  only  of 
the  manner  in  which  it  is  pressed  ? 

There  is  one  thing  of  which  I am  perfectly 
certain.  If  the  great  mass  of  the  English 
nation  ever  realized  exactly  what  Ireland  wants  ; 
if  they  could  ever  be  got  to  see  the  exact  truth 
about  Ireland,  they  would  do  her  justice,  and  I 
believe  this  is  a general  feeling  in  Ireland. 
England  may  be  unjust  to  us,  but  we  do  her  the 
justice  to  believe  that  she  errs  in  ignorance. 

It  is  not  a thousand  years  ago,  nay,  it  is 
not  even  a hundred  years  ago,  since  the  same 
bitter  clamour  existed,  or  rather  was  excited 
about  Catholic  Emancipation  and  tithes,  as 
that  which  is  excited  to-day  about  tenant  right. 
The  least  evil  that  could  happen,  if  Catholic 
Emancipation  was  granted,  was  the  murder  of 


38  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

all  the  Protestants  in  Ireland ; just  as  to-day, 
the  least  evil  that  will  happen,  if  a farmer 
is  allowed  protection  against  the  arbitrary  es- 
tate rules  of  a landlord,  is  the  total  extinction 
of  landlords. 

In  the  year  1798,  the  Irish  people  asked,  as 
they  have  so  often  asked,  for  the  benefit  of 
equal  laws  with  England.  How  they  were 
then  treated,  and  how  their  demands  were  met, 
is  shown,  not  by  any  Irish  or  Catholic  histo- 
rian, but  by  a Protestant  bishop  and  Pro- 
testant noblemen  who  dared  to  say  the  truth. 
Sir  L.  Parsons’  account  of  the  fashion  in  which 
“ some  trivial  disturbances  ” in  the  west  were 
treated,  reads  as  if  he  spoke  of  to-day ; save 
only,  and  happily,  that  the  government  of 
to-day  has  not  gone  the  same  lengths.  But  it 
cannot  be  forgotten  that  they  have  been  urged 
to  do  so  by  a certain  party  in  England,  and 
that  they  risk  office  and  popularity  by  not 
doing  so. 

The  following  notes  are  taken  from  the  Par- 
liamentary  report  of  debates,  in  the  Hibernian 
Chro7iicle , Cork,  1 7 98.  They  will  show  that 
there  were  at  least  some  influential  and  intelli- 
gent Protestants  who  saw  and  deplored  the 
infatuation  which  led  a powerful  minority  to 
treat  the  Irish  like  dogs,  and  then  turn  on  them 


Landlord  and  Tenant. 


39 


with  relentless  cruelty  if  they  resented  such 
inhumanity. 

The  Bishop  of  Down,  after  replying  in  firm 
but  courteous  language  to  the  attacks  made  on 
himself,  said  : — 

“ What  is  the  crime  which  has  provoked  such  asperity  ? 
I am  charged  with  having  been  amongst  many  highly  re- 
spectable names  who  dared  to  petition  our  common  sove- 
reign, and  lay  before  the  father  of  his  people  the  sufferings 
under  which  we  labour.  Of  that  measure  I am  proud.  I 
am  convinced  from  ocular  and  personal  examination  of  the 
general  state  of  that  part  of  the  country,  from  the  general 
testimony  of  its  inhabitants,  and  from  the  infallible  proof 
which  the  aspect  of  the  country  exhibits,  that  its  manufac- 
tures and  its  trade  have  suffered,  almost  to  annihilation. 
The  noble  and  learned  lord,  in  a tone  of  confidence  which 
is  so  peculiar  to  him,  asserts  that  I went  about  soliciting 
signatures  to  this  petition.  I assert,  in  opposition  to  the 
learned  lord,  that  the  information  which  he  has  received 
on  that  subject  is  false.  I deny  the  fact,  but  were  it  true, 
I see  nothing  in  it  which,  either  as  an  honest  man  or  a 
Protestant  bishop,  1 should  be  ashamed  of.  Is  this  the 
conduct  of  one  professing,  as  the  learned  lord  does,  such 
zeal  for  the  support  of  the  Established  Church?  If  such  be 
his  treatment  of  his  friends,  the  Catholics  have  little  reason 
to  regret  his  friendship.  But  what  is  the  impropriety  in  a 
Protestant  bishop  uniting  with  his  fellow  subjects  in  a 
petition  to  the  Crown.” 

Again  he  says  : — 

“The  Chancellor,  in  that  style  of  interrogatory  which 
seems  to  imply  so  much,  and  which  really  means  so  little, 


40 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


asks  whether  your  lordships  will  meet  treason  and  murder 
and  conspiracy  with  measures  of  conciliation,  with  Parlia- 
mentary Reform  and  Catholic  Emancipation?  I answer, 
my  lords,  that  these  are  the  only  remedies  which  in  our 
present  circumstances  are  likely  to  be  effectual.  Of  Catholic 
Emancipation — a full  and  complete  emancipation — an  ad- 
mission to  all  the  rights  and  privileges  which  a subject 
can  claim — I have  always  been  a decided  friend.  I have 
always  thought  it  was  a measure  not  merely  of  sound  policy, 
but  of  strict  right.  Nor  has  anything  which  has  fallen 
from  the  noble  lord  to-night,  or  at  any  former  time,  tended 
in  any  degree  to  shake  my  confidence  in  that  opinion. 
Equally  convinced  am  I that  a full  and  fair  reform  of  the 
representation  of  the  people  is  a measure  of  wisdom  and 
necessity.  I see  nothing  but  this  measure  which  can  now 
restore  in  Ireland  the  blessings  of  tranquillity  and  content. 

I have  some  property  in  this  country ; it  is  not  a great  deal, 
but  it  is  sufficient  to  interest  me  in  the  safety  and  welfare 
of  the  State ; I have  also  my  preferment  in  the  Church. 
Both  of  these  bind  me  to  consult  the  peace  and  good  order 
of  the  country ; and  I declare  it  to  be  my  firm  belief,  that 
unless  these  measures  be  adopted,  my  property,  and  that 
of  every  other  gentleman  in  the  country — nay,  the  country 
itself — is  gone  ! ” 

Lord  Dunsany  said  : — 

“ I shall  take  leave,  therefore,  though  it  is  with  much 
reluctance  I enter  on  so  painful  a task,  to  supply,  in  a 
small  degree,  this  omission,  by  recalling  to  the  recollection 
of  the  house  a few  of  the  many  enormities  which  your  lord- 
ships  must  have  knov/n  to  be  committed.  In  the  County  of 
Westmeath  alone — and  from  the  sufferings  of  this  ill-fated 
county,  noble  lords  may,  without  fear  of  being  mistaken, 


Landlord  and  Tenant . 


4i 


infer  those  of  the  other  counties  of  Ireland  exposed  to 
military  execution — in  this  county  alone,  it  is  an  incontro- 
vertible fact,  that  several  villages  were  destroyed  by  fire, 
without  legal  inquiry,  trial,  or  ceremony  of  any  kind.  Three 
men  were  dragged  from  their  houses,  and  shot  on  the 
fair-green  of  Baltimore,  equally  without  any  form  of  trial 
whatever,  and  time  being  scarcely  allowed  them  to  make 
their  peace  with  heaven  by  saying  a few  prayers.  After  the 
bodies  of  the  unfortunate  victims  had  been  exposed  all  the 
day  (no  friend  or  relative  daring  to  approach  them)  the 
military  had  them  tied  on  a car,  and  brought  at  a late 
hour  of  the  night  to  the  house  of  the  parish  priest,  whom 
they  forced  to  get  up,  and  threw  the  dead  bodies  into  the 
house,  as  if  the  murder  of  the  dead  was  too  little,  without 
adding  to  it  such  an  outrage  on  the  feelings  of  the  living. 

“ Look  now,  my  lords,  to  another  frequent  and  favourite 
mode  of  summary  execution.  Is  it  not  notorious  that 
several  hundreds  of  his  Majesty’s  subjects  have  been  trans- 
ported without  any  show  of  trial,  or  legal  proofs  of  any 
kind  ? And  are  not  these  grievances  ? And  will  you,  my 
lords,  by  your  vote  this  night,  countenance  such  cruelties, 
and  become,  by  such  countenance,  accessories  after  the 
fact  ? If  you  do,  consider  how  you  are  to  answer  it  to  God, 
your  king,  and  your  country. 

“ The  noble  and  learned  lord  on  the  woolsack  has  been 
pleased  to  say  that  a burst  of  loyalty  took  place  in  the  south 
at  the  time  the  French  were  on  our  coasts.  He  does  the 
Catholics  of  the  south  but  justice  in  the  observation,  a 
justice  that  prejudice  itself  cannot  deny  them.  Is  it,  then, 
for  that  burst  of  loyalty  the  noble  and  learned  earl  now 
opposes  their  total  emancipation  ? This  would  be,  indeed, 
a strange  return  for  loyalty,  a strange  mode  of  strengthening 
attachment,  and  invigorating  affection.  My  lords,  I must 
state  it  as  my  decided  conviction,  tfyat  if  conciliatory 


42  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

measures  are  not  immediately  adopted,  this  country  is  in- 
evitably lost.” 

“ Sir  L.  Parsons  brought  on  his  promised  motion.  He 
prepared  by  deprecating  the  most  remote  desire  to  say  any- 
thing on  this  subject  which  could  in  the  most  distant  degree 
increase  the  irritation  which  unhappily  existed  at  present. 
Nothing  could  be  more  far  from  the  wish  of  his  heart  than 
to  add  to  that  alarming  discontent,  which  no  man  in  the 
country  could  lament  more  sincerely  or  deeply  than  he  did. 
On  the  contrary  he  was  impelled  to  come  forward  on  this 
occasion  from  the  irresistible  impulse  of  that  duty  which  he 
felt  called  him,  to  submit  the  measure  he  was  about  to  pro- 
pose, for  the  purpose  of  allaying  that  discontent,  and  intro, 
ducing  a system  which  should  teach  the  people  of  this 
country  they  had  a legislature  who  were  capable  and  inclined 
to  attend  to  other  measures  than  those  of  punishment  or 
extermination.  But  before  he  entered  into  any  reasoning 
to  prove  the  necessity  of  such  a measure  as  he  should  pro- 
pose to  the  House,  he  thought  it  necessary  to  vindicate  the 
people  of  Ireland  from  the  heavy  charge  which  had  been 
made  on  them,  as  if  they  were  a people  whom  kindness 
could  not  attach,  whom  unlimited  concession  could  not 
conciliate.  The  British  Minister  at  that  time  (1778) 
governing  Ireland,  felt  that  there  was  a principle  of  discon- 
tent growing  into  vigour,  which  the  usurpation  of  Great 
Britain  had  given  birth  to,  and  he  thought  it  necessary  to 
appease  it,  and  how  did  he  do  it  ? By  granting  liberty  to 
Ireland  to  cultivate  tobacco,  a plant  which  would  not  grow 
in  the  island.  The  people  of  Ireland,  therefore,  now  began 
to  complain  that  the  manufactures  suffered  by  the  unequal 
terms  on  which  they  were  obliged  to  contend  with  the 
manufactures  of  Great  Britain,  etc.  It  was  remembered 
that  while  a yard  of  Irish  cloth  could  not  find  its  way  into 
England  without  paying  a duty  of  forty  shillings,  which 


Landlord  and  Te7iant. 


43 


amounted  to  a total  prohibition,  the  cloth  of  Great  Britain 
was  admitted  into  the  different  ports  of  Ireland  at  a duty 
of  only  sixpence.  This  inequality  between  the  established 
manufacturer  of  England  and  the  languid  infant  manufac- 
turer of  this  country  was  loudly  complained  of. 

“What  was  the  next  measure  of  irritation  to  the  people  ? 
Some  trivial  disturbances  had  taken  place  in  the  west — dis- 
turbances, which,  if  they  did  exist,  were  excited  by  the 
recallof  that  nobleman — gave  an  occasion  to  government 
to  send  thither  a military  force,  commanded  by  a noble  lord, 
no  longer  in  this  country.  What  was  the  consequence  of 
that  measure  ? The  laws  were  violated  in  every  instance 
where  there  could  be  an  example  made.  The  gaols  were 
delivered,  not  by  legal  trials  of  the  prisoners,  but  by  the 
visits  of  a military  officer,  who,  when  there  was  not  sufficient 
proof  against  the  prisoner  to  commit  him,  transported  him 
on  his  own  authority  ; and  mere  suspicion  of  guilt  was  con- 
sidered sufficient  to  transport  a man  for  life  from  his 
country.  Then  for  the  first  time  (?)  did  the  government  of 
Ireland  hold  forth  to  the  people  the  dangerous  example  of 
violating  the  law ; and  from  that  time  may  be  dated  all  the 
atrocities  which  have  been  since  committed  by  the  people, 
and  brought  a disgrace  on  the  national  character.  It  was 
then  that  the  populace  of  Ireland  were  for  the  first  time 
brought  to  believe  they  were  not  within  the  protection  of 
law,  (?)  and  then  it  was  that  they  ceased  to  respect  the  law. 
Let  gentlemen  consult  their  own  feelings — for  the  poorest 
peasant  has  his  natural  feelings  as  sensible  and  as  strong  as 
those  of  any  gentleman  who  heard  him—-  perhaps  his  social 
feelings  are  stronger,  as  he  is  not  diverted  from  his  family 
or  his  cottage  by  the  distractions  of  dissipation.  When  the 
house  of  the  peasant  is  burned,  even  if  he  be  guilty  of  the 
crime  charged — which  is  generally  no  more  than  that  of 
having  concealed  arms — when  his  house  is  burned  and  his 


44 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


decrepit  parent  is  sent  wandering  for  shelter  about  the 
country,  what  story  does  he  tell  ? Will  not  his  appearance 
— his  houseless  poverty,  and  his  grey  hairs,  speak  at  once 
his  sufferings  and  his  innocence  ? Will  not  the  impression 
which  such  an  object  makes,  into  whatever  cabin  he  comes, 
be  that  of  irreconcilable  hatred  against  the  government 
which  inflicts  sufferings  such  as  these  on  harmless  and  help- 
less age  ? If  the  lower  order  of  the  people  have  as  strong 
a sense  of  injustice,  as  deeply  rooted  an  antipathy  to 
oppression  as  the  gentlemen  of  that  house,  will  not  the 
houseless  children  and  forlorn  wife  of  the  suffering  peasant 
rouse  those  feelings  wherever  they  come,  and  create  a wide- 
spread aversion  of  laws  which  show  themselves  only  in  such 
effects  ? What  in  fact  has  been  the  effect  of  these  severe 
laws  that  ha.ve  given  occasion  to  such  enormities  ? It  is 
said  the  North  is  tranquilized — it  maybe  so,  but  what  kind 
of  quiet  have  they  introduced  ? They  have  smothered  the 
flame,  but  they  have  not  extinguished  it.  They  have  made 
the  North  a sleeping  volcano,  which  is  every  moment  ready 
to  burst  out  and  throw  forth  a torrent  of  destruction  over 
the  land.  But  if  the  North  had  been  rendered  quiet 
through  the  presence  and  immediate  terror  of  a military 
force,  what  has  happened  in  the  other  parts  of  the  country  ? 
Until  within  these  five  months  the  south  of  Ireland  had  re- 
mained undisturbed.  How  was  it  now?  If  the  enemy 
were  again  to  appear  upon  the  coasts,  would  the  peasantry 
of  the  South  now  stretch  forth  the  hand  of  affection  to  the 
king’s  troops — would  they  share  their  scanty  food,  and  give 
up  their  bed  to  the  weary  soldier  ? Would  they  now,  as  they 
did  when  last  the  presence  of  the  enemy  called  forth  their 
loyalty  and  zeal,  labour  from  morn  till  night  in  cutting  through 
the  frozen  snow  a passage  for  the  artillery?  Would  they  yoke 
themselves  like  beasts  of  burden,  under  the  cannon,  to  ac- 
celerate the  business  and  lighten  the  fatigues  of  the  army  ?” 


Landlord  and  Tenant . 


45 


Some  one  has  said  that  History  is  philosophy 
teaching  by  experience,  but  in  truth  there  are 
few  persons  whose  philosophy  is  so  perfect  as 
to  enable  them  to  learn  from  history.  Irish 
Protestants  were  not  all  destroyed  when  Catholic 
Emancipation  was  granted,  and  as  if  to  show 
the  utter  failure  of  the  prophecy,  it  is  an  Irish 
Protestant  gentleman  who  is  leading  that  very 
movement  to-day  which  is  causing  such  utterly 
groundless  alarm. 

When  tithes  were  abolished,  the  Irish  Pro- 
testant Church  was  to  fail  utterly ; yet,  though 
it  has  been  disestablished  by  the  act  of  an 
English  Protestant  Parliament,  it  is  just  where 
it  was  before.  Indeed,  so  far  has  the  old 
bitterness  died  out,  that  Protestant  rectors 
and  Catholic  priests  have  united  together  in 
this  famine  year  in  perfect  harmony.1 

One  of  the  great  misfortunes  of  England  has 


1 1 have  myself  to  testify  to  this  harmony.  I have  in  my  possession 
many  letters  from  Protestant  clergymen  thanking  me  for  the  help  I was 
able  to  send  the  priests  of  their  district.  In  one  case,  never  to  be  for- 
gotten, the  Protestant  clergyman  of  a large  parish  in  the  south  of 
Ireland  wrote  to  me  to  say  the  Catholic  children  had  been  prepared  for 
Confirmation,  that  the  Catholic  bishop  was  coming  to  confirm  them, 
but  they  were  so  utterly  destitute  of  clothing,  common  decency  would 
not  allow  their  appearance  in  a church.  I was  happily  able  to  send 
him  money  for  clothing  at  once,  and  thanks  to  the  energy  and  zeal — 
rather  I should  say  to  the  great-hearted  charity  of  this  good  clergyman — 
the  Catholic  children  were  clothed  in  time  for  Confirmation. 


46  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 

been  that  she  has  treated  Ireland  as  the  shuttle- 
cock of  party  politics.  Whenever  the  game  runs 
high,  Ireland  inevitably  suffers ; above  all,  if  there 
is  no  special  political  foreign  fiasco  to  distract 
attention.  Lord  Lansdowne  has  recently  se- 
vered himself  from  his  political  party,  and  his 
management  of  his  Irish  property  is  receiving  a 
good  deal  more  attention  than  he  cares  to  have  ; 
but  it  is  not  so  many  years  ago  since  the  same 
Lord  Lansdowne  called  the  then  English  Q0- 
vernment  to  account  pretty  sharply  for  their 
management  of  Irish  affairs. 

Would  it  not  be  wise,  would  it  not  be  more 
just,  to  treat  Ireland  as,  say,  Devonshire  would 
be  treated  ? Gentlemen  who  represent  political 
interests,  or  who  meet  their  constituents  in 
recess,  must  have  something  to  say ; and  men 
who  have  no  marked  ability  can  dilate  with 
most  advantage  to  their  limited  power  of 
thought  or  of  expression  on  a burning  ques- 
tion. Hence  Irish  “outrages’'  form  a subject 
at  once  attractive  and  easy  of  discussion.  No 
one  asks,  are  these  outrages  true  ? And  take  it 
at  the  worst,  admit  that  they  are  all  true,  who 
asks  calmly  and  carefully,  is  there  cause — must 
there  not  be  something  wrong  in  the  govern- 
ment of  a country  which  is  perpetually  in  more 
or  less  open  revolt  ? 


Landlord  and  Tenant. 


47 


And  if  there  is  cause,  would  it  not  be  wiser 
to  remove  the  cause  than  to  try  and  put  out  the 
flame  for  the  moment  by  Coercion  Acts  ? 

Now,  it  is  a hard  statement  to  make,  but  it  is 
unhappily  true,  that  Irish  landlords  are  getting 
up  all  this  cry  for  coercion,  simply  because  they 
are  afraid  the  light  will  be  let  in  on  their  con- 
duct towards  their  unfortunate  tenants.  They 
are  afraid,  if  the  truth  was  once  known,  that 
the  English  voter  would  exact  a pledge  from 
every  gentleman  to  whom  he  gave  his  vote,  to 
do  justice  to  Ireland  ; and  justice  is  precisely 
what  they  do  not  want.  They  want  liberty  to 
practice  usury,  and  the  only  way  to  obtain  a 
continuance  of  that  liberty  is  to  raise  a cry 
against  the  unhappy  victims  of  their  cupidity. 
Why  otherwise  are  they  so  desperately  afraid 
of  having  their  dealings  with  their  tenants  regu- 
lated by  law  ? This  is  all  the  Irish  people  ask. 
Why  do  they  utter  these  hysterical  cries  about 
the  rights  of  property  ? Why  all  that  is  asked 
of  them  is  that  they  will  respect  the  rights  of 
property. 

There  is  a time  in  the  history  of  most  nations 
when  the  demand  for  equal  justice  between 
rich  and  poor  is  refused.  There  is  a time 
when  the  compliance  with  such  a demand  would 
satisfy  the  populace.  But  quem  deus  vult 


48  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

perdere,  prius  dementat.  The  aristocracy  re- 
fuse to  grant  justice  to  the  plebeian,  and  they 
forget  that  power  is  with  the  multitude,  and 
with  a multitude  who  are  apt,  when  justice  is 
refused,  to  ask  for  something  more,  and  to  take 
somewhat  short  methods  of  asserting  their 
demands. 

If  one  must  judge  from  the  tone  of  some 
English  papers,  it  would  be  supposed  that  the 
Irish  people  have  no  cause  of  complaint  whatso-. 
ever.  It  is  forgotten,  conveniently,  that  there 
are  Englishmen  who  admit  that  Ireland  is 
governed  unjustly,  and  who  admit  this  from 
personal  knowledge  and  experience  of  the  state 
of  the  country. 

But  for  the  sake  of  those  who  wish  to  know 
the  true  state  of  Ireland,  I must  again  allude  to 
the  miserable  influence  of  English  political  agi- 
tation. I take  an  example  of  it,  as  a caution  to 
those  who  wish  to  treat  Ireland,  not  as  a 
political  play-toy,  but  as  part  of  their  own 
country. 

The  Pall  Mall  Gazette  having  changed 
hands  politically,  has  changed  its  opinions  about 
Ireland.  Surely  those  sudden  changes  of  opi- 
nion in  an  important  English  paper  ought  to 
convince  any  man  with  common  sense  that 
there  are  two  sides  to  what  is  said  of  Ireland, 


Landlord  and  Tenant. 


49 


and  that  he  ought  to  consider,  not  which  opi- 
nion his  party  maintains,  but  which  opinion  is 
true. 

The  Pall  Mall  Gazette  of  October,  1880, 
writes  thus  of  Irish  affairs  : — 

“ Now  it  is  easy  enough  to  talk  of  silly  misguided 
peasants  urged  on  by  unscrupulous  agitators  to  believe 
themselves  half-starved,  miserable,  and  oppressed,  when  in 
fact  they  are  fat,  well-looking,  and  the  freest  of  the  free. 
That  may  be  all  gospel  truth,  though  tracts  somewhat  tend 
to  show  that  wily,  misguided  peasants  have  at  least  capacity 
enough  to  know  whether  their  bellies  are  full  or  empty, 
whether  their  landlords  are  tyrannous  and  unjust  or  just  and 
sympathetic.  But — and  that  is  the  matter  for  us  just  now — 
there  are  some  millions  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  who 
don’t  believe  it.  They  do  not  believe  that  the  wholesome 
deportations  of  1847  and  onwards  were  conducted  in  the 
true  spirit  of  Christian  charity,  nor  for  the  matter  of  that, 
that  the  Marquis  of  Lansdowne’s  estates  have  been  managed 
in  the  humanitarian  fashion  which  that  able  supporter  of 
“ freedom  of  contract  ” represents  in  his  letter  to  the  Ameri- 
can newspaper.  They  hold  that  they,  as  well  as  their  friends 
and  relations  now  in  Ireland,  have  been  shamefully  used  by 
the  landlords  and  by  the  English  Government  which  sup- 
ported those  landlords  in  the  maintenance  of  a system  of 
land  tenure  that  no  single  human  being  who  has  not  inte- 
rests of  his  own  to  serve  by  doing  so  can  be  found  to  advo- 
cate for  a moment.  Thus  thinking  they  mean  some  day  to 
fight — partly  for  revenge,  partly  for  the  future  of  the  country 
that,  to  do  them  justice,  they  love  only  too  well.  Now 
what  we  want  ask  is  this.  Is  it  worth  while  to  shut  our 
eyes  to  this  bitterness  of  feeling,  and  to  laugh  at  the  idea  of 

D 


50 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 


Ireland  being  a heavy  handicap  to  us  in  the  event  of  serious 
foreign  war?  We  have  tried  the  game  of  coercion  in  the 
interests  of  a small  minority  over  and  over  again.  What  has 
it  benefited  us  the  English  people  ? What  indeed  ! Might 
we  not  now  try  a little  steady  justice  on  both  sides?  Irish- 
men go  out  to  America,  they  go  out  to  our  colonies — nay, 
they  come  to  our  own  cities,  and  work  hard  enough. 
In  America,  too,  they  earn  enough  money  to  be  more 
liberal  to  their  own  kith  and  kin  than  any  other  emigrant 
race.” 

What  a policy  for  Ireland!  One  wonders 
that  English  gentlemen  who  pride  themselves 
on  their  honour  and  conscience  can  stoop  so 
low.  It  is  calmly  admitted  in  a leading  English 
paper,  generally  credited  now  with  being  the 
organ  of  a Liberal  Government,  that  England 
has  tried  the  game  of  coercion  in  the  interests  of  a 
small  minority  over  and  over  again. 

And  this  is  stated  deliberately  by  one  of  the 
most  important  organs  of  English  opinion,  and 
yet  we  are  told  that  the  Irish  people  have  no 
grievances,  that  they  are  a discontented,  lazy, 
thankless  race ; always  returning  good  for  evil 
to  their  beneficent  and  long-suffering  masters, 
their  landlords. 

And  then  the  writer  asks  the  very  pertinent 
question,  “ What  has  it  benefited  us  the  Eng- 
lish people  ? ” 

Let  us  hope,  when  such  a broad  gleam  of 


La7idlord  and  Tenant . 


5i 


light  has  come  to  rulers  of  Ireland  that  they 
will  cease  to  do  the  evil  which  they  admit  that 
they  have  done  so  persistently,  and  that  they 
will  begin  to  do  the  good  even  if  they  only  do 
it  from  the  lower  motive  of  benefit  to  England, 
instead  of  from  the  high  and  glorious  motive  of 
eternal  justice. 

Are  there  no  men  in  England  who  love 
justice  for  its  own  sake,  and  who  will  rise 
in  their  might  and  see  justice  done  because  it  is 
justice  ? 

The  truth  is  that  it  has  been  found  on  the 
whole  less  trouble  to  govern  Ireland  on  the 
politics  of  the  moment  than  on  the  politics  of 
principle.  Whenever  the  support  of  the  multi- 
tude was  not  necessary,  Ireland  was  governed 
on  the  principle,  or  on  the  want  of  principle, 
indicated  above.  The  “small  minority,,  were 
allowed  to  coerce  as  they  pleased.  How  they 
coerced,  we  shall  show  presently  from  the 
speech  of  another  Englishman.  But  where 
there  was  fear  lest  the  help  of  the  multitude 
might  be  needed,  or  lest  the  hindrance  of  the 
multitude  should  embarrass,  then,  indeed, 
England  becomes  afraid  lest  Ireland  should  be 
“ a heavy  handicap  ” to  her  in  the  event  of  a 
“serious  foreign  war,”  and  so  some  show  of 
justice  must  be  made. 


52 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


And  English  gentlemen  talk  of  the  honour 
of  old  England  and  her  love  of  justice,  and 
they  write  and  read  such  words,  and  act  thus  ; 
and  let  it  be  remembered  that  if  these  things 
are  written  in  England  they  are  read  in  Ireland. 
Can  it  be  wondered  then  if  the  Irish  people  are 
not  very  devoted  subjects  of  the  English  nation  ? 

But  another  English  writer  has  even  a stronger 
case  to  put  for  Ireland.  The  editor  of  Truth 
says  : — 

“ The  Irish  occupiers  may  be  said  to  have  a far  stronger 
moral  right  in  their  holdings  than  most  English  occupiers. 
After  several  bad  harvests  they  were  unable  to  pay  their 
rents.  Their  means  were  exhausted,  and  they  claim  that  if 
the  land  produces  nothing,  they  ought  not  to  be  ejected 
because  they  do  not  pay  rent  to  their  landlords.  The  letter 
of  the  law  is  with  the  landlords,  but  the  spirit  of  the  law,  if 
law  be  equity,  is  with  the  occupiers.” 

In  1848  Gavan  Duffy  wrote — 

“Where  Frank  and  Tuscans  spend  their  sweat, 

The  goodly  crop  is  theirs  ; 

If  Norway’s  toil  makes  rich  the  soil, 

She  eats  the  fruit  she  rears. 

O’er  Main’s  green  sward  there  rules  no  lord, 

Except  the  Lord  on  High, 

But  we  are  serfs  in  our  own  land — 

Proud  masters,  tell  us  why  ? ” 

The  English  writer  quoted  above  gives  a 
practical  reply. 


■ 


■ 


' 


JOHN  DILLON,  M.P. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  TRUE  CONSIDERATION  OF  IRISH  AFFAIRS 
HINDERED  BY  PARTY  OPINION. 


“No  one  has  heard  of  outrages  upon  the  estates  of  the  families  of 
Devonshire,  Powerscourt,  Fitzwilliam,  Downshire,  Portsmouth,  Bess- 
borough,  amongst  many  others.  I am  loth  to  write  anything  that 
would  bear  even  the  semblance  of  apology  for  outrage,  but  truth  com- 
pels me  to  say  that  the  scenes  of  most  outrages  have  been  previously 
associated  with  harsh  and  unjust  landlord  management.” — Mr.  Russell, 
M.P.,  letters  to  Daily  Telegraph. 


UT,  unhappily,  there  is  the  political  side 
of  the  Irish  question,  which  to-day 
interferes  with  justice  to  Ireland,  as  it 
has  done  for  centuries. 

If  the  Pall  Mall  and  Truth , representing  the 
opinions  of  a certain  class,  speak  fairly  of  Ire- 
land, the  opposite  political  party  are  obliged,  in 
defence  of  the  political  acts  of  their  party,  to 
speak  in  precisely  the  opposite  fashion. 

The  one  rule  for  all  Conservative  govern- 
ment of  Ireland  has  been  coercion.  It  has  at 
least  the  merit  of  simplicity.  If  the  people 
complained,  when  more  than  usually  excited 
by  more  than  usual  suffering,  they  were  to  be 
met  with  coercion.  The  policy  so  aptly  des- 


54 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 


cribed  above  of  coercing  the  majority  for  the 
benefit  of  the  few,  was  at  once  put  in  practice. 
If  a time  of  comparative  prosperity  came,  and 
the  people  did  not  express  their  demands  with 
any  violence,  it  was  said  that  they  did  not  want 
anything,  and  therefore  it  was  useless  to  make 
Land  Acts. 

Sir  M.  Beach,  in  his  speech  at  Cirencester, 
referred  in  this  style  to  the  state  of  Ireland, 
which  he  characterised  as  “ more  dangerous 
than  anything  in  the  East  of  Europe.”  A 
political  necessity  again.  His  party  have  in- 
volved affairs  in  the  East  in  a perilous  manner  ; 
it  was  obviously  his  business  to  direct  attention 
from  that  matter,  so  Ireland  must  be  the  official 
scape-goat  again.  He  then  continued  : — 

“ Disorder  and  crime  reigned  in  many  parts  of  Ireland 
to  an  extent  which,  he  feared,  had  hardly  been  known  for 
the  last  half  century.  He  had  said  that  his  experience  in 
Ireland  had  taught  him  one  lesson ; it  had  also  taught  him 
another.  They  must  not  believe  all  the  exaggerated  reports 
they  had  heard  ; they  must  not  consider  as  true  of  the  whole 
of  Ireland  what  might  be  true  of  one  or  two  small  parts  of  the 
country.  It  did  not  follow  that  because  murder  had  been 
committed  in  the  West  that,  therefore,  the  City  of  Dublin 
was  not  as  safe  as  the  town  of  Cirencester.  He  feared 
that  Press  correspondents,  anxious,  no  doubt,  to  gratify  the 
desire  of  the  public  for  news,  were  not  always  particular  in 
the  kind  of  news  they  supplied,  and  certainly  the  Press 
correspondents  in  Ireland  were  not  more  particular  than 


True  Consideration  Hindered.  55 

their  brethren  in  England  (hear,  hear,  and  cheers).  There- 
fore he  had  at  first  been  disposed  to  regard  the  stories  of 
disorder  in  Ireland  as  exaggerated,  but  when  he  saw  that  a 
deputation  representing  the  Irish  landlords  of  every  creed 
and  class  and  political  opinion  waited  upon  the  Lord  Lieu- 
tenant and  Chief  Secretary,  at  Dublin  Castle,  and  when  he 
saw  the  reply  of  Mr.  Forster,  that  they  were  putting  law  in 
force,  and  that  it  was  feared  the  statements  were  true,  then 
he  began  to  think  that  there  was  really  something  serious, 
and  something,  he  was  thankful  to  say,  in  these  times 
unique  in  the  state  of  Ireland.” 

If  ever  there  was  an  evidence  of  the  utter 
unreliability  of  party  opinions  on  Irish  affairs, 
here  is  one.  I use  the  word  party  advisedly, 
for  it  is  evident  from  the  whole  tenor  of  the 
speech  that  it  is  made  in  the  interest  of  the 
Conservative  party  and  policy. 

Nor  do  we  intend  by  this  to  condemn  Con- 
servatism per  se,  or  to  exalt  Liberalism.  Our 
question  is  not  whether  the  one  policy  or  the 
other  is.  best  in  the  abstract ; we  desire  simply 
to  show  that  Irish  affairs  are  not,  and  cannot  be 
discussed  justly  when  they  are  discussed  from 
the  standpoint  of  party. 

Observe  in  what  a tissue  of  contradictions 
this  gentleman  is  involved.  First  he  announces 
to  an  audience  quite  unable  to  contradict  his 
assertion,  that  the  state  of  crime  and  disorder 
is  worse  in  Ireland  than  it  has  been  for  the  last 


56  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

half  century.  Irish  people  will  ask  in  amaze- 
ment where  this  extraordinary  state  of  things  ex- 
ists. He  admits,  however,  that  Dublin  is  “safe.” 
Well,  if  he  had  taken  the  trouble  to  ascertain  facts 
before  he  put  forward  fancies,  he  might  have 
ascertained  easily  that  Dublin,  on  account  of  its 
mixed  population,  was  the  only  place  in  Ireland 
where  there  was  anything  like  the  amount  of 
crime  that  is  found  in  every  English  town. 
But  he  has  the  candour  to  say  that  the  Press 
cannot  always  be  relied  on.  We  have  shown 
how  utterly  fallacious  are  its  reports  when  Ire- 
land is  concerned  ; but  he  says  the  “ landlords  ” 
have  convinced  him. 

Was  ever  logic  more  absurd!  He  asks  the 
persons  who  have  the  strongest  possible  in- 
terest in  making  it  appear  that  the  country  is 
disturbed,  and  accepts  their  opinion.  As  well 
might  he  ask  the  criminal  in  the  dock  what  he 
thought  of  the  testimony  given  by  the  witness 
of  his  crime. 

In  the  year  1851,  even  after  the  Famine, 
there  were  351,000  people  in  the  county 
Tipperary.  In  the  year  1871  there  were  but 
230,000  ; in  that  short  twenty  years  of  landlord 
government  of  Ireland,  over  one  hundred  thou- 
sand people  were  driven  out  of  their  native 
county  by  the  misrule  of  Irish  landlords,  and 


True  Consideration  Hindered . 57 

yet  we  are  told  that  to  continue  and  uphold 
this  misrule  is  the  one  thing  necessary  for 
Ireland. 

But  if  we  turn  to  Irish  political  opinion  on 
Irish  affairs,  we  find  the  same  hopeless  con- 
fusion, even  where  there  is  an  apparent  desire 
to  act  fairly. 

The  Protestant  Bishop  of  Cork  has  been 
addressing  his  clergy  on  the  subject,  which 
is  certainly  a question  of  the  most  momentous 
importance  to  every  man,  woman,  and  child  in 
this  country. 

After  the  usual  platitudes  about  the  con- 
dition of  Ireland  being  a puzzle  to  statesmen, 
his  Lordship  has  the  honour  and  manliness  to 
admit  that  religion  is  not  the  cause  of  all  the 
ills  of  Ireland,  though  that,  he  says,  “ used  to 
be  said.” 

Another  proof  of  what  we  have  said,  that 
one  generation  condemns  what  the  previous 
generation  has  done ; and  that  the  truth  about 
Ireland,  social,  political,  and  religious,  is  the 
subject  of  bitter  and  acrimonious  dispute  to- 
day ; and  to-morrow  it  will  be  admitted  that 
the  Irish  claims  so  disputed  were,  after  all,  not 
so  unfair. 

To  act  on  party  politics  in  questions  of  foreign 
policy  may  not  be  a matter  of  serious  moment ; 


5 3 7 he  Cose  of  Ireland  stated. 

to  act  on  them  where  the  interests  of  home 
government  are  in  question,  is  to  inflict  a deadly 
injury  on  one  member  of  the  body  politic  to  the 
equal  hurt  of  the  whole  body. 

Here  is  what  an  Irish  Protestant  landlord, 
who  is  neither  Home  Ruler  nor  Land  Leaguer, 
says  : — 

“ Our  manufactures  and  our  trade  in  raw  materials  were 
destroyed  to  please  English  monopolists.  Smuggling  per 
force  became  the  national  industry,  and  did  not  tend  to 
make  a law-abiding  people.  The  Volunteers  extorted  some 
concession,  but  manufacturing  traditions  had  perished  irre- 
trievably ; a craving  for  independence  succeeded  the  desire 
for  Union,  and  Pitt’s  offer  of  a commercial  partnership  was 
refused  as  tending  to  tighten  the  bond  between  the  two 
nations.  When  Union  came  at  last,  it  was  unaccompanied 
by  religious  freedom,  and  earned  no  gratitude.  Until  1782 
the  English  Council  had  a veto  on  Irish  bills,  and  during 
that  period  all  the  worst  laws  were  passed.  The  Consti- 
tution of  1782  was  unworkable,  but  the  Irish  House  of 
Commons,  though  elected  and  managed  in  the  worst  way, 
did  what  it  could  (not  always  wisely  or  well)  to  foster  trade 
and  lighten  Catholic  fetters.  After  the  Union  power 
returned  to  England,  and  it  took  thirty  years  of  agitation  to 
gain  religious  freedom,  which  was  only  granted  when  the 
Duke  of  Wellington  could  no  longer  see  how  the  King’s 
Government  was  to  be  carried  on.  The  Church  Establish- 
ment survived  forty  years  more,  and  was  then  destroyed  in 
deference  to  an  agitation  which  had  culminated  in  rebellion. 
. . . I am  no  Home  Ruler,  seeing  the  impossibility  of 

that  platform,  feeling  that  our  best  hope  lies  in  strengthening 
the  tardy  and  imperfect  Union.  But,  before  God  and  man, 


True  Consideration  Hindered.  59 

England  is  responsible  for  Ireland.  Enlightened  British 
opinion  must  be  the  final  judge  in  this  cause.  I appeal 
from  the  England  of  test  acts  and  protection,  to  the  England 
of  free  trade  and  the  conscience  clause.  Englishmen  who 
would  understand  our  case  must  know  our  history  as  they 
generally  know  their  own.  Mr.  Froude  and  Mr.  Leckey 
are  in  every  library ; let  them  correct  one  another.” 

The  opinion  of  Irish  gentlemen,  like  Mr. 
Bagwell,  should  have  weight  in  England.  But 
unhappily  the  opinion  of  such  men  is  not 
known  there,  and  there  is  therefore  a general 
and  most  untrue  impression  that  all  Irish  land- 
lords desire  the  continuance  of  a state  of  things 
which  leaves  the  tenant  at  the  mercy  of  caprice, 
instead  of  placing  him  under  the  protection  of 
law* 


CHAPTER  IV. 


IRISH  OUTRAGES. 

DISCUSSION  which  is  carried  out  on 
the  platform  of  mutual  recrimination 
does  not  tend  to  the  advancement  of 
truth.  Unhappily  we  have  had  far  too  much 
of  this  kind  of  discussion  when  Irish  affairs  are 
in  question ; but  it  is  neither  statesmanlike 
nor  patriotic.  A statesman  who  would  sacrifice 
the  well-being  of  any  portion  of  the  empire  to 
party  politics  is  not  worthy  of  his  manhood, 
and  is  no  friend  to  his  country.  The  purest 
patriotism  is  that  which  desires  the  well-being 
of  all. 

Now  it  is  but  too  obvious  that  the 
“state  of  Ireland has  always  been  made  a 
crucial  difficulty  in  the  discussion  of  Irish 
affairs  ; and  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  to  ascer- 
tain the  truth  on  this  point  is  of  the  utmost 
importance. 

Now,  it  is  impossible  to  take  up  any  English 
paper  without  finding  it  full  of  the  most  terri- 
fying reports  of  the  state  of  Ireland.  We  have 


Irish  Outrages. 


61 


already  shown  that  to  publish  such  reports  has 
been  a regular  practice  for  centuries,  We  shall 
proceed  to  show  that  at  this  very  time  the  very 
same  practice  is  continued,  with  the  very  same 
result.  Now,  as  I can  show  that  “outrages”  are 
largely  and  deliberately  manufactured,  I trust  to 
the  high  honour  of  English  readers  that  they 
will  condemn  such  mischievous,  such  miserable 
policy,  and  assuredly  when  they  know  that 
outrages  are  invented  by  the  press  they  will 
use  their  common  sense,  and  distrust  many  of 
such  reports.  When  this  is  done  sytematically, 
must  there  not  be  some  cause  for  it.  And  they 
will  then  ask  what  is  the  cause,  and  who  gains 
by  all  this  malicious  lying. 

We  fear  there  can  be  only  one  reply.  The 
people  ask  for  English  laws  to  protect  them  in 
their  farms  and  houses.  The  demand  is  so 
reasonable  and  so  just,  that  it  would  certainly 
be  heard  if  it  was  allowed  to  reach  the  ears  of 
the  British  public.  But  the  landlords,  and  land 
agents  also,  are  interested  in  keeping  up  the 
social  disorder  which  they  cause  by  their  arbi- 
trary power  of  eviction,  and  try  to  drown  the  voices 
of  the  people.  The  safest,  truest,  and  quietest 
way  to  do  this  is  to  manufacture  outrages.  It 
may  seem  a hard  thing  to  accuse  gentlemen  of 
doing  this,  but  that  it  is  done,  I shall  prove, 


62  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

and  since  it  is  done,  who  can  do  it,  and  would 
care  to  do  it,  save  only  those  who  have  a spe- 
cial interest  in  the  doing  of  it. 

Now,  I ask  English  readers  is  justice  to 
Ireland  ; rather,  I would  ask,  is  this  justice  to 
themselves  ? Falsehood  may  triumph  for  a 
while,  but  even  in  this  world  it  never  succeeds 
in  the  end.  Besides,  do  people  wish  for  facts  or 
for  falsehood  ? As  I have  said  before,  Irish 
people  are  perpetually  reproached  with  a want 
of  truthfulnesss.  There  is,  or  I should  rather 
say  there  was,  no  more  constant  accusation 
against  us,  and,  of  course,  it  was  all  the  fault  of 
our  religion.  But  what  of  this  English  want  of 
truth  ? Is  it  any  the  more  honest  because  it  is 
English — any  the  more  honourable  because 
those  who  promulgate  these  falsehoods  are  Pro- 
testants ? Then  we  are  repeatedly  told  in  the 
English  papers  that  the  Irish  are  lazy,  that  they 
will  not  work,  that  their  poverty  is  all  their  own 
fault.  For  that  calumny,  too,  I have  an  answer, 
in  the  very  words  of  landlords  who  have  been 
betrayed  unintentionally  into  strong  admissions 
of  the  industry  of  the  Irish  people,  though  the 
vast  majority  of  landlords  deny  the  industry  of 
the  people,  even  while  they  are  living  on  it. 

Some  of  the  statements  made  by  papers 
which  circulate  only  amongst  the  upper  class  of 


Irish  Outrages . 


63 

English  Protestants  and  Catholics  have  obser- 
vations on  them  which  actually  contradict  them- 
selves, and  would  strike  anyone  not  anxious  to 
believe^them  with  their  utter  absurdity.  In  one 
paper  it  was  said  that  a party  of  armed  men  cut 
off  a man’s  ears  while  he  was  in  bed,  but  not 
being  able  to  get  into  the  house  (!)  contented 
themselves  with  digging  a grave  outside  the 
door  ! The  statement  was  contradicted  in  the 
Irish  papers — but  what  did  that  matter  ? and 
what  did  it  matter  to  a certain  class  of  English 
readers  whether  the  whole  story  bears  on  its 
face  the  marks  of  a palpaple  calumny  or  not  ? 

A gentleman — Mr.  Barry — wrote  to  contra- 
dict the  statement  of  an  outrage  said  to  have 
been  committed  on  him.  He  denied  the  whole 
story,  and  added  that  the  only  foundation  for  it 
which  he  could  imagine,  was  the  work  of  a too 
enterprising  pig,  which  had  attempted  a raid 
upon  his  hen  house  ! And  yet  the  contradictions 
of  these  outrages  are  never  given  in  English 
papers  ; and  if  any  one  attempted  to  write  to  an 
English  paper  denying  them,  even  on  personal 
authority,  their  letters  are  refused  insertion. 

Are  there  no  Irish  outrages  f Certainly  there 
are. 

We  are  not  yet  living  in  Paradise,  nor  are  we 
all  fit  to  be  canonized  saints.  But  there  is  one 


64  The  Case  of  Irela7id  stated. 

question  I would  like  to  have  asked  by  every 
one  who  hears  Irish  outrages  made  the  subject 
of  conversation.  Is  it  worse  to  commit  a 
murder  in  Ireland  than  in  England?  and  is 
there  any  difference  in  the  sight  of  God  between 
the  murder  of  a gentleman,  and  the  murder  of 
a poor  man,  or  woman,  or  helpless  little  child  ? 

For  the  sake  of  her  own  interests,  let  Eng- 
land beware.  She  is  not  wanting  in  men  of 
honour  and  of  conscience,  and  amongst  some  of 
her  so-called  middle  classes  there  is  a deep  and 
true  spirit  of  religion.  The  poor  understand 
the  poor.  Men  who  have  suffered  themselves 
know  what  others  suffer  practically,  and  there 
is  no  knowledge  like  practical  knowledge.  In 
England  there  is  a very  large,  and  very  influ- 
ential, middle  class  far  above  the  poor  in  worldly 
position,  yet  who  are  not  blinded  by  the  tempta- 
tion of  excessive  wealth  or  high  rank.  If  this 
class  of  Englishmen  were  once  convinced  of  the 
true  state  of  Ireland,  the  Irish  question  would 
soon  be  settled.  But  how  are  they  to  know 
the  truth  ? Every  English  paper  that  is  pub- 
lished is  full  of  the  most  lying  reports  of  Irish 
outrages  which  have  never  happened,  and  con- 
tain the  grossest  misrepresentations  of  every- 
thing Irish,  while  anything  that  would  go  to 
show  the  true  state  of  the  country  is  carefully 


Irish  Outrages. 


&5 


suppressed.  Certainly  it  is  difficult  to  see  how 
the  suppression  can  be  otherwise  than  deliberate 
since  it  is  persistent.  It  is  carried  on  on  a very 
large  scale,  and  no  sign — not  even  the  very  least 
sign — of  reparation  is  ever  shown. 

For  example,  I find  the  following  paragraph 
in  the  Cork  Examiner  of  Oct.  14  : — 

“The  Times  has  been  furnished  by  a correspondent,  who 
dates  his  communications  from  Cork,  with  the  following 
description  of  the  state  of  society  in  the  barony  of 
Duhallow  : ‘ The  lawlessness  which  was  exhibited  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Kanturk  a few  weeks  ago  has  been 
followed  by  fresh  acts  of  violence.  Organised  gangs  of 
men  are  permitted  to  prowl  about  at  night,  committing 
violence  and  outrage,  avenging  imaginary  wrongs,  and 
carrying  terror  into  the  hearts  of  well-disposed  men. 
Ribandism  in  its  worst  phases  appears  to  be  rampant,  and 
the  legitimate  exercise  of  men’s  rights  is  opposed  and 
thwarted.’  It  is  much  to  be  deplored  that  statements  of 
this  character  should  be  foisted  day  after  day  upon  the  Eng- 
lish public  by  its  leading  organ  to  support  the  clamour  for 
coercion  laws.  In  nine  cases  out  of  the  ten  the  Times'  re- 
ports of  outrages  in  Ireland  are  simply  wicked  inventions.” 

What  a tremendous  responsibility  rests  on 
men  who  deliberately  and  persistently  write 
what  is  utterly  false  of  a whole  nation  ! They 
do  well  to  talk  of  the  honour  of  England,  and 
they  do  well  to  deny  God,  and  to  claim  their 
descent  from  the  lowest  types  of  the  brute 
creation.  But  a time  of  reparation  will  come 

E 


66  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 

most  assuredly,  not  only  in  the  world  to  come, 
but  in  this  world.  If  the  English  press  lie 
about  Ireland,  other  nations  will  lie  about 
England.  If  the  English  people  allow  their 
representatives  to  treat  Irish  wrongs  with  in- 
difference, and  Irish  grievances  with  contempt, 
they  may  well  tremble  for  the  consequences. 
It  is  not  man  who  will  judge  them — it  is  God. 

The  heathen  had  a saying  : “ The  mills  of 
the  gods  grind  slowly,  but  they  grind  exceeding 
small.”  The  Divine  books  tell  us  with  what 
measure  ye  mete  it  shall  be  meted  to  you 
again.  Sooner  or  later,  even  in  this  world, 
every  outrage  against  justice  is  punished, 
because  an  outrage  against  justice  is  an  out- 
rage against  God. 

It  is  curious  to  find  History  repeating  itself, 
and  if  the  subject  were  not  so  serious,  it  would 
be  amusing.  We  have  already  shown  the  panic 
which  beset  and  bewildered  the  lords  and 
magistrates  of  Bantry  and  Bandon,  and  their 
consequent  wild  cries  for  coercion  in  1 798. 
We  have  shown  also  how  they  were  answered, 
and  how  the  panic  was  shown  to  be  of  their 
own  causing  by  a Protestant  bishop  and  Pro- 
testant gentlemen.  To-day  there  is  the  same 
causeless  panic,  the  same  cry  for  coercion  and 
troops ; yet  I find,  in  the  Cork  Examiner  of 


67 


Irish  Outrages. 

Oct.  30  (1880),  letters  from  three  parish  priests 
denying  that  there  is  any  disturbance  or  any 
need  for  extra  police  or  soldiers.  The  Rev. 
Mr.  MacMahon  writes  from  Boherbee,  County 
Cork : — 

“ Your  informant  would  seem  to  wish  to  leave  the  public 
under  the  impression  that  danger  and  insecurity  prevailed 
in  these  parts.  But  I unhesitatingly  affirm,  that  life  and 
property  are  safer  in  this  locality  than  in  London  and  its 
vicinity.  There  armed  burglars  commit  their  depredations 
night  after  night,  often  delivering  and  receiving  fire,  and 
their  operations  are  treated  by  the  English  Press  as  only 
the  ordinary  incidents  of  English  life.  What  a howl  they 
would  raise  if  those  outrages  had  taken  place  in  Ireland. 
Let  us  hope  that  our  own  journals  will  not  furnish  these 
foul  and  malignant  slanderers  with  pabulum  for  their  dia- 
tribes against  our  wronged  and  sorely-tried  people,  by 
giving  undue  publication  to,  or  attaching  groundless  im- 
portance to,  those  wretched  threatening  letters,  which  are 
obviously  the  production  of  idiots  or  enemies. 

“ Faithfully  yours, 

“ P.  MacMahon,  P.P” 

The  next  letter  is  from  the  Rev.  M.  Shink- 
win,  of  Bantry,  contradicting  an  account  of  an 
outrage  on  a “ paralysed  farmer,”  and  simply 
saying  that  no  such  person  existed.  The  third 
letter  I give  more  at  length  : — 

“ To  the  Editor  of  the  ‘ Cork  Examiner.’ 

“ Dunmanway,  2 8th  October , 1880. 

“ Dear  Sir — I have  read  with  much  surprise  in  this  day’s 
Examiner  that  a certain  number  of  magistrates  of  the  county 


68 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 


assembled  in  the  County  Courthouse  in  Cork  yesterday, 
passed  resolutions  calling  on  the  Government  to  suspend 
the  Habeas  Corpus  Act,  and  to  garrison  Bandon,  Skibbe- 
reen,  Bantry,  and  Dunmamvay,  with  British  troops. 

“ As  no  reporter  was  admitted  to  the  meeting,  I am  slow 
to  believe  that  such  resolutions  could  have  been  passed  by 
gentlemen  who  live  in  the  midst  of  the  people,  and  must 
know  how  peaceful  and  quiet  they  generally  are. 

“ Nothing  certainly  has  yet  occurred,  nor  does  there 
appear  reason  to  apprehend  the  occurrence  of  anything  to 
justify  so  extreme  an  interference  with  the  civil  rights  and 
liberties  of  the  whole  community  as  the  suspension  of  the 
Habeas  Corpus  Act.  And  as  regards  Dunmanway  in  par- 
ticular, with  which  I am  more  intimately  connected  and 
more  fully  acquainted  than  with  the  other  parts  of  the 
county,  I feel  bound  in  justice  to  its  most  peaceful  people 
thus  publicly  to  state  that  it  would  be  a gross  injustice  to 
their  character  to  represent  them  as  a lawless  people,  or 
such  as  needed  to  be  kept  in  order  by  the  presence  of  a 
British  garrison. 

“That  you  were  misinformed  as  to  Dunmanway  being 
included  amongst  the  places  needing  a 1 British  garrison,’ 
must  appear  evident  from  the  fact  that  no  less  than  four 
magistrates  who  reside  in  the  parish  of  Dunmanway  are 
reported  as  present  at  the  meeting.  They,  from  their  con- 
stant residence  among  the  people,  and  from  their  experience 
at  Petty  Sessions,  know  full  well  that  the  people  of  this  part 
of  the  country  were  never  more  peaceful  than  they  are  at 
the  present  time ; that  they  are  quietly  and  industriously 
attending  to  their  own  ordinary  business,  and  in  no  way 
conspiring  either  against  the  public  peace  or  individual 
rights. 

“ In  the  fulness  of  conviction,  I venture  to  affirm  that  in 
no  county  of  Ireland  and  in  no  shire  of  England  are  the 


Irish  Outrages, 


69 


people  more  law-abiding  than  the  inhabitants  of  Dunman- 
way.  Even  during  the  present  great  national  movement  to 
abolish  unjust  and  cruel  laws,  they  have  not  been  carried 
away  by  any  violent  agitation ; they  have  even  generally 
stood  aloof  from  the  Land  League ; not  indeed  from  any 
indifference  to  the  great  and  necessary  reforms  needed  in 
the  land  laws  of  the  country,  but  from  their  disapproval  of 
language  used,  and  of  principles  propounded  by  prominent 
members  of  the  League.  They  rely  on  peaceful  and  con- 
stitutional means  to  obtain  the  long  delayed  redress  of  their 
patiently  endured  grievances.  They  anxiously,  but  peace- 
fully and  hopefully,  looked  forward  to  the  meeting  of  Parlia- 
ment, when  they  expect  that  those  really  great  and  truly 
liberal  statesmen,  Gladstone,  Bright,  and  Forster,  will  make 
such  a wholesome  change  in  the  land  laws  of  the  country 
as  will  ensure  the  proper  cultivation  of  the  soil,  the  reclama- 
tion of  the  vast  waste  lands,  and  the  much-needed  protec- 
tion and  encouragement  to  the  hard  working  and  badly 
requited  farmers.  Such  people  have  not  forfeited  their  con- 
stitutional rights,  nor  need  they  be  ruled  by  a British 
garrison. — Yours  truly, 

“John  Cotter,  P.P.” 

I will  not  do  the  common  sense  of  English 
readers  the  injustice  to  suppose  that  these 
letters  will  carry  less  weight  because  they  are 
written  by  priests.  I will  only  again  recall  to 
their  attention  how  a similar,  and  certainly  a 
more  excusable  panic,  was  met  nearly  a century 
since  by  Protestant  gentlemen  who  did  not 
allow  their  religious  opinions  to  render  them 
unjust  to  their  fellow-subjects. 


70  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

But  here  is  another  specimen  of  outrage 
manufactured  in  the  County  Limerick  : — 

“ Manufactured  Outrages. — Much  indignation  has 
been  evinced  by  the  farmers  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Drumbanna  at  the  publication  of  a paragraph  in  a contem- 
porary relative  to  the  serving  of  threatening  notices,  for 
which  it  is  stated  there  was  no  foundation  whatever.  The 
following  has  been  handed  to  me,  with  a request  that  it 
may  be  published  in  the  Examiner: — ‘At  Drumbanna, 
about  two  miles  from  Limerick  city,  a number  of  threatening 
notices  were  discovered  posted  early  yesterday  (Sunday) 
morning,  to  the  effect  that  unless  a farmer  surrendered  up 
a farm  of  which  he  had  lately  got  possession  an  untimely 
fate  awaited  him.  On  the  notices  was  the  rude  sketch  of 
a coffin.  It  is  alleged  that  the  man  has  lately  taken  over 
a farm  from  which  a farmer  has  been  evicted  for  non- 
payment of  rent,  the  latter,  however,  obtaining  for  his 
good-will  of  the  place,  a holding  of  some  sixty  acres,  and 
the  incoming  tenant  paying  some  three  years’  rent  due.’ 
The  foregoing  is  substantially  a fabrication  from  first  to 
last.  Not  a single  threatening  notice  was  found  on  the 
day  mentioned,  nor  any  other,  for  the  best  of  reasons, 
that  none  were  posted  or  written  at  all.  There  was  no 
occasion,  nor  any  reason.  The  late  tenant  left  the  farm 
entirely  of  his  own  accord,  and  was  glad  to  obtain  the 
terms  which  the  incoming  tenant,  a most  respectable  Catholic 
Irishman,  afforded.  He  paid  not  only  ^50,  but  altogether, 
for  rent  and  interest,  up  to  ^400  ; and  it  is  a fact  that  he 
and  his  predecessors  parted  as  best  of  friends.” 


But  I might  occupy  the  entire  of  the  present 
volume  with  cases  of  reported  outrages  which 


Irish  Outrages . 


7i 


have  been  proved  false.  Unhappily,  however, 
the  proof  of  the  falsehood  never  extends  beyond 
the  local  papers,  while  England  and  Europe  are 
left  to  stare  aghast  at  crimes  which  were  never 
committed. 

A most  terrible  outrage  was  reported  and 
much  commented  on  in  the  English  papers,  as 
having  been  committed  at  Kanturk,  where  it 
was  said  a man’s  ears  were  cut  off.  Doubting 
the  whole  story,  I wrote  to  a gentleman  there, 
and  ascertained  that  there  was  not  one  syllable 
of  truth  in  the  whole  story. 

The  Times  had  the  following  statement  last 
month  : — 

“ At  Macroom  yesterday  a steward  in  the  employment  of 
Mr.  Massey,  J.P.,  observed  three  men  lurking  about  the 
plantations.  Finding  that  they  were  watched,  they  attacked 
and  violently  assaulted  the  steward,  and  cut  his  throat.  It 
is  stated  that  he  was  seriously  wounded.” 

But  what  are  the  facts  ? The  man  was  not 
Mr.  Massey’s  steward;  but  it  adds  to  an  outrage, 
to  some  minds,  to  connect  it  with  landlords. 
He  did  not  see  three  men,  and  he  was  not 
assaulted.  The  whole  affair  was  thus  dressed 
up  for  English  readers.  But  what  was  the 
fact  ? A poor  farmer’s  son  attempted  suicide 
in  a wood,  and  not  for  the  first  time.  No 


72 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


doubt  some  future  historian  will  write  a chapter 
on  this  supposed  outrage,  and  know  nothing  of 
the  real  facts. 

In  a recent  leader  the  Times  says  : — 

“ Englishmen  always  like  to  know  the  worst  about  them- 
selves. If  a battle  has  been  lost,  or  a job  perpetrated,  or 
if  unsoundness  is  suspected  in  any  department,  the  demand 
is  for  the  full  facts.  There  must  be  no  concealment,  no 
half  inquiry,  no  shrinking  from  publicity.  The  revelation 
may  be  a shameful  one,  but  it  must  not,  therefore,  be  with- 
held. Out  the  whole  thing  must  come  into  broad  daylight, 
and  must  be  seen,  and  judged,  and  remedied.  This  national 
characteristic  is  put  to  a good  test  by  the  reports  which  reach 
us  daily  from  the  election  commissions  now  sitting.  Dis- 
graceful they  are  in  the  very  highest  degree.  No  Englishman 
can  get  through  his  morning  paper  without  shame  at  its 
contents.  The  Commission  Reports  are  one  long  record 
of  the  most  naked  and  unabashed  corruption.  A novelist 
would  never  have  dared  to  introduce  such  stories.  They 
are  too  incredibly  bad  for  fiction.  * 

And  so  on.  Let  us  hope  that  Englishmen  will 
show  now  this  highly  honourable  point  as  re- 
gards Ireland,  and  when  they  know  how  they 
have  been  deceived,  that  they  will  act  accord- 
ingly. 

It  is  especially  in  the  matter  of  murders  that 
these  false  statements  are  so  rife.  It  scarcely 
answers  to  venture  on  murdering  any  promi- 
nent Irish  nobleman  or  gentleman  in  print,  as 


Irish  Outrages. 


73 


the  case  would  be  too  flagrant  and  too  easily 
disproved.  The  only  way  in  which  misrepre- 
sentation on  this  point  can  be  carried  out  well 
is  by  what  Americans  call  “ tall  writing.”  This 
impresses  the  public  very  much.  When  they 
are  told  that  gentlemen  are  obliged  to  go  to 
balls  fully  armed,  that  there  is  a reign  of  terror, 
that  landlords  are  afraid  to  remain  on  their 
estates  and  are  obliged  to  fly  to  England,  that 
priests  are  obliged  to  get  their  whole  congre- 
gations to  kneel  down  and  swear  they  will  not 
murder  some  particular  land  agent,  to  answer 
all  the  purposes  of  fact. 

It  was  said  that  Lord  Ardilaun  was  obliged 
to  leave  his  Irish  estates  in  consequence  of 
threatening  letters,  that  he  had  packed  up  all 
his  household  goods  never  to  return,  and  a pa- 
rallel was  drawn  therefrom  as  to  the  baseness 
and  ingratitude  of  the  Irish,  who  could  never 
be  satisfied,  and  who  turned  even  on  their 
most  generous  benefactors.  But  what  was  the 
truth  ? Simply  that  Lord  Ardilaun  never  had 
the  least  intention  of  leaving  Ireland.  But  the 
lie  answered  the  purpose  all  the  same.  Lord 
Muskerry  was  also  held  up  as  another  useful 
example  of  how  good  landlords  were  compelled 
to  fly  the  land,  but  Lord  Muskerry  had  the 
good  sense  to  write  himself  to  the  Irish  papers 


74  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 

denying  the  report.  Whether  it  was  denied  in 
any  English  paper  or  not  I have  not  been  able 
to  ascertain,  but,  to  the  best  of  my  belief,  it  was 
not. 

Indeed,  Irish  gentlemen,  if  they  wish  to  deny 
such  reports,  get  little  thanks.  Another  Irish 
landlord,  who  wrote  to  a “ society”  paper  to 
contradict  a report  that  he  was  in  bodily  fear  of 
his  life,  and  who  said  he  had  always  lived  most 
happily  with  his  tenants,  was  told  that  he  was 
an  exception,  not  to  the  general  rule,  but  to  the 
invariable  rule ; and,  it  was  added,  with  a sneer 
of  contempt,  that  such  tenants  were  not  to  be 
found  in  all  Ireland.  The  writer  of  this  remark 
had  probably  never  visited  Ireland,  or,  if  he 
had,  knew  nothing  whatever  of  the  relations 
between  Irish  landlords  and  tenants. 

Let  the  English  reader  who  thinks  and  who 
is  not  actuated  by  prejudice,  ask  himself  this 
one  question,  and  the  reply  will  soon  settle 
this  part  of  the  Irish  question. 

If  it  is  true  that  Irish  landlords  live  in  mortal 
fear  of  their  lives,  that  they  are  always  at  war 
with  their  tenants,  and  that  they  never,  or  rarely 
ever,  can  get  their  rents  paid,  how  is  it  that  they 
are  so  anxious  to  retain  possession  of  their  Irish 
estates  ? If  one-half  the  stories  were  true 
about  the  bad  character  of  Irish  tenants,  might 


Irish  Outrages. 


75 


you  not  be  assured  that  Irish  landlords  would 
not  only  accept,  but  would  even  press  on  the 
government  a scheme  for  the  purchase  of  their 
estates. 

Is  is  not  enough  to  alienate  a warm-hearted 
and  faithful  people,  who  have  made  such 
struggles,  as  will  never  be  known  to  pay  their 
rents,  even  in  times  of  famine.  Let  the  truth 
be  told  about  the  state  of  Ireland.  We  ask  no 
more.  And  we  demand  injustice  to  ourselves, 
as  Englishmen  would  demand  in  justice  to  them, 
that  the  truth,  and  that  alone,  should  be  told. 

Even  on  this  very  day,  or  while  I write,  the 
Irish  papers  had  reports  of  terrible  crimes  in 
England.  Amongst  others,  a painful  tragedy 
at  Chiselhurst,  where  a head  game-keeper  and 
his  wife  were  killed,  and  quite  a lot  of  other 
outrages.  But  they  are  told  simply  as  public 
news,  and  are  not  made  the  subject  of  writers 
on  the  general  depravity  of  the  English  people. 

But  there  is  another  form  in  which  false  re- 
ports are  made  about  Ireland  which  is  scarcely 
less  injurious  than  that  to  which  we  have  already 
alluded. 

An  Irish  landlord,  especially  if  he  be  a noble- 
man of  any  influence,  can  very  easily  get  a 
paragraph  in  the  Times , or  in  a society  paper, 
which  will  represent  him  as  a model  of  benevo- 


76  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

lence.  Sometimes  these  statements  are  made 
as  reports  of  public  affairs  without  any  action  on 
the  part  of  the  landlord,  but  all  the  same  they 
are  utterly  misleading  and  extremely  mis- 
chievous. 

In  the  early  part  of  this  year  when  the  dis- 
tress here  was  at  its  height,  there  was  a public 
dinner  of  the  St.  Patrick’s  Society  in  London  ; 
what  this  society  does  to  deserve  its  name  I 
know  not,  but  let  that  pass.  Two  or  three 
Irish  noblemen  were  present,  and  complimented 
each  other  very  liberally — one  of  these  gentle- 
men, the  Duke  of  Devonshire,  I think,  for  I 
write  from  memory,  complimented  the  Marquis 
of  Lansdowne  very  highly.  This  nobleman,  he 
said,  had  at  once  flown  to  his  Irish  estates  when 
the  distress  appeared,  to  see  what  he  could  do 
for  his  tenants.  He  blamed  himself  by  implica- 
tion as  he  praised  his  friend,  and  those  who  read 
the  report  must  naturally  have  concluded  that 
extraordinary  exertions  had  been  made  by 
Lord  Lansdowne  for  his  tenantry.  But  what 
was  the  fact,  beyond  the  gift  of  £ 20  to  the 
fund,  which  we  had  collected,  Lord  Lansdowne 
did  actually  nothing  for  his  tenantry.  What  he 
did  was  wholly  for  his  own  benefit,  and  it  will 
perhaps  be  scarcely  credited  that  the  only  action 
taken  by  him  was  to  improve  his  property  at  the 


Irish  Outrages. 


77 


permanently  increased  rents  of  his  tenantry,  and 
this  in  the  Famine  year. 

This  subject  is  too  long  to  enter  upon  here, 
but  I shall  do  so  in  the  next  chapter. 

Again,  it  was  announced  far  and  wide  in  the 
Press  that  Lord  Lansdowne  was  providing  his 
tenants  with  seed  potatoes.  It  was  left  to  be 
inferred — we  must  fear  it  was  intended  to  be 
inferred — as  otherwise  why  should  it  have  been 
inserted  in  so  many  papers  as  a Press  notice, 
that  the  potatoes  were  to  be  given  to  his 
tenantry.  But  what  was  the  fact  ? The  pota- 
toes were  all  sent  down  at  the  full  market 
price.  If  the  people  thought  that  this  was 
done  more  for  the  sake  of  securing  Lord  Lans- 
downe’s  future  rent  than  for  their  benefit,  they 
can  scarcely  be  blamed. 

Lately  his  tenantry  were  not  a little  amused 
at  a paragraph  quoted  from  a county  paper 
announcing  that  he  was  “ packing  up  his  traps  ” 
(sic),  to  exchange  Bowood,  one  of  his  English 
estates,  for  Kenmare,  and  loudly  praising  his 
“ generosity  ” and  his  “ unselfish  example  of 
duty,”  holding  him  up  in  fact  as  a social 
martyr  to  the  good  of  his  Irish  tenants.  But 
what  was  the  fact  ? Lord  Lansdowne  was  just 
leaving  Kenmare  for  his  shooting  in  Scotland. 

These  may  seem  trivial  matters,  but  they  are 


78 


The  case  of  Ireland  stated. 


not  so  when  they  affect  and  help  to  prove  opi- 
nions on  very  grave  subjects — on  subjects  which 
affect  the  well-being  of  some  millions  of  our 
fellow-creatures. 

“ Some  time  back  we  had  an  ‘ outrage  ’ in  the  shape  of 
a very  neatly  made  coffin,  covered  with  crape  and  adorned 
with  a breastplate,  left  at  the  Hon.  Captain  Chichester’s 
gate.  He  is  brother  and  agent  to  Lord  Templemore.  Now, 
it  is  absolutely  certain  that  this  ‘agrarian  outrage’  was 
not  agrarian  at  all,  and  that  the  individuals  who  perpetrated 
it  have  no  connection  whatever  with  Lord  Templemore’s 
estate,  nor  with  as  much  land  on  any  other  estate  as  ‘ would 
sod  a lark.’  There  are  two  opinions  on  the  subject.  The 
first  is  that  it  was  done  simply  as  ‘ a lark  ’ ; the  second, 
that  it  was  the  act  of  certain  individuals,  not  at  all  con- 
nected with  the  estate,  who  thought  if  they  could  frighten 
away  the  captain  they  could  more  effectually  advance  their 
personal  interests,  on  the  principle,  ‘in  the  cat’s  absence  the 
mice  can  play.’  ” 

“ Knockdrimmin,  Oct.  29th. — I regret  to  have  to  inform 
you  that  a pug-dog  belonging  to  Lady  Balragget  was  very 
badly  bitten  on  the  public  road  in  this  neighbourhood,  some 
days  ago  by  a dog  of  mongrel  breed,  and  said  to  be  un- 
registered, who  lives  with  a tenant  named  Bryan  Sweeny. 
There  were  several  dogs  mixed  up  in  the  row,  concerning 
the  origin  of  which  there  are  conflicting  accounts,  but  the 
interference  of  her  ladyship’s  pug  appears  to  have  been 
specially  resented  by  several  of  them,  evidently  for  no  other 
reason  than  that  he  belonged  to  one  of  the  better  classes. 
A branch  of  the  Land  League  has  lately  been  established  in 
this  parish,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  to  its  malign 
influence  we  may  trace  the  disgraceful  occurrence  we  have 
mentioned.” 


Irish  Outrages. 


79 


Letters  such  as  those  of  Lord  Lismore  and 
the  Rev.  W.  B.  Wright,  which  are  appended 
below,  show  also  that  there  is  not  quite  such  a 
social  upheaval  as  English  politicians  like  to 
assert. 

There  is  one  point  of  view  in  which  such 
matters  as  threatening  letters  and  the  very  few 
murders  which  have  occurred  in  Ireland  should 
be  considered.  In  a state  of  general  excite- 
ment, the  temptation  to  and  the  opportunity 
for  revenge  for  personal  wrongs  arises  more 
easily.  Moreover,  many  of  the  acts  which  have 
been  credited  to  agrarian  excitement,  have  had 
nothing  to  do  with  it.  Those  who  would  have 
feared  detection  if  they  were  guilty  of  the  crime 
of  avenging  a personal  wrong,  have  the  tempta- 
tion of  comparative  safety  when  there  is  public 
excitement.  It  was  commonly  believed  in  the 
North  that  Lord  Leitrim’s  murder  had  nothing 
to  do  with  agrarian  causes.  There  is  one  crime 
more  detested  in  Ireland  than  any  eviction,  and 
for  that  men  will  take  vengeance  in  their  hands 
when  no  other  cause  would  move  them  to  do  so. 

And  it  should  be  remembered  that  while 
sympathy  on  false  grounds  is  excited  in  Eng- 
land, the  truth  is  known  well  in  Ireland,  and  it 
does  not  tend  to  promote  feelings  of  amity 
when  men  are  held  up  as  models  of  virtue 


8o 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


when  they  are  well  known  to  have  been  simply 
detested  for  their  vices. 

The  de  mortuis  nisi  nihil  bonum  theory  is 
carried  too  far  when  the  dead  are  praised  at  the 
expense  of  the  living,  and  to  the  injury  of 
national  peace. 

The  following  will  give  further  proof  how 
persistently  outrages  are  manufactured  : — 

“THE  LAND  AGITATION. 

“To  the  Editor  of  the  ‘Freeman.’ 

“ Athleague  Vicarage,  Roscommon, 

“ Nov.  ist. 

“ Sir, — My  strong  feeling  on  the  subject  urges  me  to  enter 
my  earnest  protest  against  aggravating  the  trouble  now  ex- 
isting in  Ireland  by  the  introduction  of  the  religious  element, 
so  as  to  connect  the  one  in  any  way  with  the  other.  That 
there  is  no  reason  for  doing  so  my  experience  leads  me  im- 
plicitly to  believe.  I have  been  for  nearly  ten  years  resi- 
dent in  the  west  of  Ireland,  and  I declare  with  great  pleasure 
that  I have  never  met  anything  but  extreme  kindness  and 
courtesy  from  my  Roman  Catholic  fellow-countrymen,  lay 
and  clerical.  Religion  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  present 
disorder,  the  cessation  of  which  is  earnestly  desired  by  all 
peaceable  citizens — by  Roman  Catholics  as  much  as  by 
Protestants. — Yours  faithfully, 

“ W.  Bourke  Wright,  Vicar  of  Athleague. 

* I have  sent  a copy  of  this  letter  to  the  Daily  Express.” 


Irish  Outrages . 


8 1 

Here  is  another  instance  of  manufactured 
outrages  : — 

“A  MANUFACTURED  * OUTRAGE.* 

“From  the  ‘Freeman’s  Journal.* 

“ B allin asloe,  Saturday. 

“ J.  Caulfield,  Esq.,  Sub-Inspector  R.I.C.,  Ballinasloe, 
visited  Lismany  to-day  to  ascertain  the  particulars  of  the 
threatening  notices  which  Mr.  Pollock  and  his  gamekeeper 
were  reported  to  have  received,  and  found  that  there  was 
not  a word  of  truth  in  the  reports  which  were  circulated  in 
Friday’s  papers.  Much  indignation  is  felt  at  this  quiet 
locality  being  groundlessly  aspersed.” 

“THREATENING  LORD  LISMORE. 

[“Special  Telegram.] 

“ Last  evening  the  Mayor  of  Clonmel  received  the  follow- 
ing letter  from  Lord  Viscount  Lismore,  with  reference  to 
the  proposed  public  meeting  to  be  held  in  Clonmel  con- 
demning the  outrage  committed  on  his  lordship  : — 

“‘31  Old  Burlington  Street,  London,  W. 

November  1st,  1880. 

“ ‘ Dear  Mr.  Mayor, — I see  by  this  morning’s  Clonmel 
papers  that  many  kind  friends  propose  to  have  a meeting 
called  to  give  expression  to  their  feelings  in  respect  to  the 
letter  I received.  Although  most  grateful  for  the  kindness 
which  prompted  them,  I think  that  such  a meeting,  in  the 
present  state  of  our  county,  would  not  be  advisable.  I haie 
always  been  jealous  of  the  good  name  of  our  county,  and 
was  proud  to  be  able  to  repeat  at  our  agricultural  dinner 

F 


82  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

last  August,  that  Mr.  Forster  in  Parliament  had  called  it 
the  model  county  of  Ireland.  After  all,  it  is  possible,  and, 
I think,  most  probable,  that  the  letter  never  came  from 
Ireland,  and  it  would  be  a great  injustice  to  the  people  of 
our  country  to  accuse  any  of  them  of  having  written  such  a 
letter  to  me  without  positive  proof.  A meeting  such  as  I 
see  proposed  would  be  complimentary  to  me,  but  not  to  the 
country.  Do  not  think  that  I am  insensible  or  ungrateful 
for  all  your  kind  wishes,  as  so  plainly  expressed.  I hope 
and  trust,  as  long  as  I live,  to  continue  in  the  future  what  I 
have  attempted  in  the  past — the  development  of  the  agricul- 
tural and  other  interests  of  our  country. — Faithfully  yours, 

* ‘ Ljsmore.’  ” 


. 


■ 


J.  G.  BIGG  AH,  M.P. 


CHAPTER  V. 


THE  CAUSE  OF  IRISH  OUTRAGES. 

“There  is  no  real  bargain  when  one  side  cannot  afford  to  refuse 
whatever  terms  the  other  side  sees  fit  to  propose.” — Lord  Sherbrooke' s 
article  in  Fortnightly  Review. 

UT,  it  will  be  said,  are  there  no  Irish 
outrages  ? Unquestionably  there  are  ; 
and  if  they  were  better  known  in 
England,  the  Irish  question  would  soon  be 
settled.  Unhappily  public  speakers  and  public 
writers  carefully  suppress  the  facts,  whilst 
making  the  most  of  the  circumstances.  In  the 
first  place,  no  one  will  deny  that,  with  rare 
exceptions,  Irish  outrages  are  all  connected 
with  land.  There  are  few  murders  in  Ireland 
from  other  causes,  which  is  remarkable,  since 
unhappily,  there  is  much  drinking  in  some  dis- 
tricts ; wife-beating  is  unknown ; child-murder 
is  so  rare  as  to  be  almost  unheard  of,  and  our 
worst  enemies  admit  the  singular  purity  of  our 
people.  As  a matter  then  even  of  social 
science,  as  a question  of  the  philosophy  of 
jurisprudence,  would  it  not  be  a matter  of 


84  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 

interest  to  inquire  into  the  causes  of  agrarian 
crime  ? And  when  a people  are  otherwise  so 
free  from  crime,  is  there  not  a presumption  in 
their  favour  that  there  must  be  grave  cause  for 
crime  in  this  case  ? 

There  are  two  points  with  regard  to  the 
Land  Question  in  Ireland  that  should  be  tho- 
roughly understood  before  the  question  can  be 
argued  on  with  any  degree  of  justice.  First,  it 
should  be  perfectly  and  clearly  understood  that 
there  is  no  freedom  of  contract ; and  secondly, 
that  there  is  no  other  source  for  the  investment 
of  capital. 

A man  must  either  take  a farm  at  the  rent 
which  the  landlord  chooses  to  name,  or  he  must 
continue  the  occupation  of  a farm  of  which  he 
is  in  possession  at  an  increased  rent,  or  else  at 
once  emigrate,  or  go  to  the  workhouse.  Having 
absolutely  no  choice,  he  takes  too  often  the 
former  alternative  in  a modified  form.  He  takes 
or  continues  the  farm  at  a rent  which  is  so  high 
that  he  can  only  maintain  existence  in  a condi- 
tion of  semi-starvation.  Is  it  any  matter  of 
surprise  that  a man  should  commit  an  outrage 
on  landlord  or  land  agent  when  the  very  con- 
ditions of  existence  have  been  made  almost 
impossible  to  him,  toil  how  he  will  ? 

Let  it  be  remembered  that  we  have  already 


The  Cause  of  Irish  Outrages. 


85 


stated,  on  the  high  authority  of  the  Marquis  of 
of  Lansdowne,  that  there  are  54,000  families  in 
three  counties  alone  who  cannot  live  either  in 
decency  or  comfort.  On  Lord  Lansdowne’s  own 
estate,  and  he  is  no  rack-renter,  and  as  regards 
rents,  is  probably  one  of  the  most  reasonable  land- 
lords in  Ireland,  there  are  numbers  of  families  in 
this  unhappy  condition.  The  remedy  for  all  this 
is  another  question.  At  present  I am  dealing  only 
with  facts,  about  which  there  is  no  dispute  on 
either  side.  Here  is  what  Lord  Sherbrooke 
has  said  on  this  question  ; and  let  it  be  remem- 
bered he  is  now  by  no  means  favourable  to  Ire- 
land. And  here  is  what  the  Tunes  says  on  Lord 
Sherbrooke’s  article,  both  showing  that  extra- 
ordinary inconsistency  between  facts  and  con- 
clusions which  characterises  every  English  writer 
about  Ireland. 

The  Times  says  : — 

“ The  odd  thing  is  that  Lord  Sherbrooke  himself  admits 
in  one  paragraph  that  the  supposed  contracts  between  land- 
lords and  tenants  in  Ireland  are  not  contracts  at  all.  ‘ If 
we  will  look  the  matter  fairly  in  the  face,  the  truth  is  that  the 
small  Irish  tenant  is  too  poor  to  enter  into  a contract,  which 
presupposes  equality  between  the  two  contracting  parties. 
In  England  the  tenant  can  afford  to  bargain.  In  Ireland, 
as  far  as  the  contract  goes,  and  speaking  about  small  farms, 
the  landlord  lays  down  the  rule,  and  the  tenant  submits  to 
it.  . . . The  very  idea  of  equality  is  banished  from 


86 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 


such  a proceeding.  There  is  no  real  bargain  where  one 
side  cannot  afford  to  refuse  whatever  terms  the  other  sees 
fit  to  propose.’  Here  we  get  something  of  a touch  of  fact  ; 
but  Lord  Sherbrooke  makes  no  use  of  the  truths  he  seems 
to  have  in  his  grasp.  Surely,  if  his  description  of  the  posi- 
tion of  the  small  tenants  in  Ireland  is  right,  all  his  reasoning 
about  non-interference  with  contract  vanishes.  The  Land 
Act  of  1870  was  based  on  the  principle  that  the  relations  of 
the  tenants  of  Ireland  with  their  landlords  are  more  accu- 
rately regarded  as  relations  of  status  than  as  relations  of 
contract ; and  it  was  in  the  recognition  of  this  view  that  its 
provisions  were  framed.  It  is,  of  course,  possible  that  what 
was  then  done  may  require  amendment.  It  was  a great: 
experiment,  and  it  would  be  strange  indeed  if  it  were  perfect 
at  the  first  draft.  But  if  anything  more  is  necessary,  it  must 
be  conceived,  we  doubt  not,  on  the  principles  of  the  Act  of 
1870  and  in  the  same  spirit. ” 

So  far  for  the  question  of  contract.  There  is 
no  freedom  of  contract.  But  there  is  another, 
and  a most  important  point  : there  is  no  other 
source  for  the  investment  of  capital  ; yet, 
curiously  enough,  Lord  Sherbrooke  overlooks 
this,  and  his  remarks  on  this  point  are  thus 
noticed  by  a writer  in  the  Standard : — 

“ In  Lord  Sherbrooke’s  paper  ‘ On  Legislation  for 
Ireland,’  in  the  Ninetee7ith  Cetitury  for  November,  he 
remarks  : — 4 The  Irish  mind  is  far  too  extensively  given  to 
the  cultivation  of  land,  to  the  neglect  of  safer  and  more 
profitable  industries.’  Lord  Sherbrooke  ignores  the  fact 
that  Irish  manufactures  were  prohibited  in  the  interest  of 


The  Cause  of  Irish  Outrages . 8 7 

English  trade,  with  the  exception  of  the  linen  manufactory, 
ofwhich  England  had  none.” 

Now  no  English  writer  denies  that  every 
Irish  industry  was  crushed  by  England.  We 
are  often  told  to  forget  the  past,  to  let  bygones 
be  bygones.  But  when  the  past  seriously  and 
materially  affects  the  present,  it  is  no  charity  to 
ignore  it. 

These  two  points  are  the  whole  source  of 
Irish  outrages.  Men  commit  outrages  when 
they  find  rents  demanded  from  them  which 
they  cannot  pay  even  if  they  starved.  Men 
commit  outrages  when  they  find  that  the  want 
of  any  other  source  for  investment  of  capital 
except  land,  leads  some  one  else  to  take  the 
land  at  a rent  which  the  former  tenant  could 
not  pay  and  live. 

One  cannot  help  asking  then  who  is  to  blame 
for  these  agrarian  outrages.  Are  they  all  the 
fault  of  a singularly  oppressed  people  ? It  is 
a question  for  thoughtful  minds,  and  we  ask  a 
very  careful  consideration  of  it. 

No  doubt  it  is  very  foolish  and  very  unpa- 
triotic to  take  a farm  from  which  a farmer  has 
been  evicted  because  he  could  not  pay  usurious 
rent.  But  to  the  end  of  the  world  there  will  be 
men  to  do  this.  John  has,  perhaps,  ^200  in 
hand,  his  little  all.  He  sees  no  other  way  of 


88 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated \ 


using  his  capital.  Peace,  Lord  Sherbrooke! 
there  is  no  other  industry  open  to  him,  safe  or 
unsafe.  And  so  he  unwisely  invests  his  all, 
only  to  lose  it,  or  to  live  out  an  existence  of  yet 
greater  misery  than  that  of  James,  whom  he 
has  succeeded.  No  doubt  if  Irishmen  had  the 
good  sense  and  the  patriotism  to  refuse  to  take 
a farm  from  which  a tenant  had  been  evicted 
for  being  unable  to  pay  excessive  rent,  the 
Irish  question  would  be  settled  very  speedily 
without  legal  intervention.  But  since  there 
will  always  be  persons  who  will  speculate  un- 
wisely, if  not  ruinously,  legal  intervention  is  a 
necessity. 

The  Land  League  has  tried  to  effect  by 
public  opinion  what  should  be  effected  by 
law.  Now,  if  the  outrages  which  have  occurred 
in  Ireland  this  year  are  carefully  examined,  they 
will  be  found  to  have  arisen  from  this  one 
cause. 

But  since  nothing  can  be  more  ruinous  to  the 
morals  of  a people  than  to  take  the  law  into 
their  own  hands,  however  just  may  be  the 
grounds  on  which  they  do  so,  it  is  the  first 
duty  of  Government  to  protect  the  people  by 
law  from  this  demoralising  course.  A Govern- 
ment which  fails  to  do  so  is  neither  just  nor 
paternal. 


The  Cause  of  Irish  Outrages . 89 

The  state  of  the  country  with  regard  to  ex- 
cessive and  usurious  rents  will  be  shown  by  the 
results  of  the  present  Land  Commission,  in  a 
way  that  will  simply  amaze  the  people  of 
England.  Instead  of  expressing  horror  at  the 
few  outrages  which  have  been  committed  in 
consequence  of  this  state  of  things,  they  will  be 
amazed  that  these  few  outrages  were  not  multi- 
plied  by  hundreds. 

The  evidence  taken  before  the  Land  Com- 
mission is  not  yet  published,  but  by  permission 
of  the  gentlemen  who  are  examined  a report 
can  be  obtained  for  the  press.  The  following 
extracts  from  the  Report  of  the  Commission 
which  took  evidence  at  Killarney  in  October 
(1880),  I add  here.  No  words  are  needed  to 
enhance  its  importance  : — 

“ Rev.  Father  O’Connor,  whose  name  is  so  well  known 
in  connection  with  the  Harenc  tenantry,  said  that  the 
Government  valuation  was,  generally  speaking,  a fair  rent. 
The  disturbed  state  of  the  country  at  present,  he  said,  was 
owing  to  the  high  rents  the  tenants  were  asked  to  pay,  and 
withal  they  had  no  security.  He  was  in  favour  of  a peasant 
proprietary,  or  a system  that  would  be  virtually  equivalent 
to  it.  He  brought  forward  a number  of  cases  of  rack- 
renting  in  his  district,  and  said  that  the  rents  were  on  an 
average  double  and  treble  the  poor-law  valuation.  He  also 
cited  several  evictions  that  had  taken  place  owing  to  the 
inability  of  the  tenants  to  pay  the  enormous  rents  they 
were  charged.  Father  O’Connor  then  entered  fully  into  the 


90 


7 he  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


circumstances  connected  with  the  Harenc  Estate  tenantry, 
and  the  well-known  part  he  took  in  trying  to  secure  the 
farms  for  the  tenants.  Although  Mr.  Hussey  professed  to 
be  willing  to  re-sell  to  the  tenants,  not  a single  working 
farmer  had  a chance  of  purchasing  his  holding.  Father 
O’Connor  also  said  that  before  the  sale  peace  and  harmony 
prevailed  over  the  property,  but  at  present  it  was  a scene  of 
riot  and  disorder  ; and  lately  an  extra  force  of  constabulary 
had  been  drafted  into  the  district  to  keep  the  peace. 

“ Rev.  Arthur  Moynahan,  Adm.,  Listowel,  in  giving  his 
evidence,  said  that  the  radius  of  the  parish  was  three  miles, 
and  the  number  of  landlords  was  twenty,  of  whom  very  few 
were  resident.  He  gave  various  instances  of  rack-renting 
in  the  district,  and  as  being  favourable  to  a peasant  pro 
prietary.  He  said  there  was  no  peasant  proprietor  in  the 
parish,  and  there  was  not  any  more  hard-working  or  indus- 
trious farmer  to  be  found  in  the  whole  of  Ireland.  To 
multiply  instances,  he  said,  would  be  repetition.  It  was  the 
same  tale  re-told.  The  landlords  some  few  years  ago  seemed 
to  compete  in  increasing  their  rent-rolls,  to  meet  which  the 
tenant  borrowed  from  the  banks,  and  the  result  of  it  all 
now  was  that  the  whole  fabric  threatened  and  shook  to  its 
very  foundations.  To  pay  those  very  high  rents  the  farmers 
of  the  district  and  their  children  lived  most  sparingly — in 
fact,  the  farmers  gave  all  to  the  landlords,  and  kept  nothing 
for  themselves.  He  quoted  a number  of  instances  which 
showed  that  the  rent  was  two,  three,  and  sometimes  six 
times  as  much  as  Griffith’s  valuation,  and  said  that  beyond 
any  doubt  North  Kerry  was  as  a rule  rack-rented,  and  the 
condition  of  the  tenant-farmers  was  in  many  cases  deplor 
able.  The  landlords  had,  for  many  years  past,  raised  the 
rents,  and  sometimes  in  a woful  manner.  Several  of  the 
landlords  were  non-resident,  and  as  a rule  non-improving, 
and  they  seized  upon  every  opportunity,  by  the  raising  of 


The  Caitse  of  Irish  Outrages . 


9i 


rent  and  enormous  fines,  to  confiscate  the  improvements  of 
the  tenantry.  No  wonder,  he  said,  the  tenantry  of  Ireland 
were  heartless  and  dispirited — the  land  was  neglected,  and 
the  country  was  a reproach  to  its  rulers.  The  present 
system  was  radically  wrong,  and  the  axe  should  be  laid  to 
the  root  of  the  evil.  Father  Moynahan  proposed  the  fob 
lowing  remedies  : — 1st,  a peasant  proprietary  by  every 
possible  means ; 2nd,  a public  means  for  the  fixing  of  fair 
rents ; 3rd,  no  evictions  while  a fair  rent  is  paid ; 4th,  the 
right  to  sell,  without  leave,  for  the  tenant ; 5th,  a measure 
for  advancing  moneys  for  improvements  to  the  tenant  him- 
self without  first  giving  it  to  the  landlord,  as  at  present ; 6th, 
a measure  for  facilitating  the  reclamation  of  waste  lands ; 
and  7th,  a tax  on  absenteeism.  Father  Moynahan,  in  the 
course  of  his  evidence,  gave  the  case  of  Widow  McCarthy, 
on  Lord  Ormathwaite’s  estate,  where  the  rent  was  ;£ioo, 
and  the  valuation  ^33  ; in  another  case  the  rent  was  four- 
teen times  the  valuation  ; and  in  the  case  of  John  Feelejq  a 
tenant  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Moore,  the  rent  was  ,£75,  while  the 
valuation  was  only  £ 16  10s.  Another  matter  Father 
Moynahan  drew  attention  to  was  that  in  his  district  the 
landlords  were  in  the  habit  of  raising  the  rent  when  a farmer 
got  married ; and,  worse  than  all,  one  farmer  had  his  rent 
raised  during  the  past  year.” 

“ Mr.  Thomas  O’Rourke,  Tralee,  in  his  evidence  gave  it 
as  his  opinion  that  the  best  solution  of  the  land  question 
would  be  on  the  lines  of  Mr.  Butt’s  bill,  which  went  in  for 
fixity  of  tenure,  fair  rents,  and  free  sale,  which  was  almost 
analogous  to  the  Ulster  custom,  with  the  addition  of  having 
the  Bright  clauses  of  Gladstone’s  Act  of  1870  embodied  in 
it,  and  also  to  have  the  Government  purchase  up  the  four 
millions  of  acres  of  waste  lands  in  Ireland,  to  be  parcelled 
out  amongst  cottier  tenants  at  is.  an  acre,  the  loans  to  be 
repaid  in  thirty-one  years.  Labourers’  cottages  should  also 


92 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated, . 


be  built  on  the  lands  at  the  expense  of  the  Government ; 
the  loans  to  be  repaid  in  thirty-one  years  at  per  cent. 
Those  were  his  ideas  as  to  what  a land  bill  should  be  that; 
would  give  peace  to  the  landlords,  peace  to  the  tenants,  and 
peace  to  the  Government.  He  knew  of  one  man,  of  one 
tenant,  on  the  estate  of  Mr.  Beale  Browne,  of  Crotto, 
County  Kerry,  whose  valuation  was  15s.,  and  who  was  now 
paying  a rent  of  ,£15  ; and  he  was  aware  of  another  tenant 
on  the  same  property  who  paid  £85  10s.  rent,  and  the 
valuation  was  only  ^9  5s.,  and  this  man  could  not  record 
his  vote  at  the  election  of  1872  owing  to  the  lowness  of  his 
valuation.  As  regarded  the  way  in  which  tenants  were 
compensated  for  improvements,  he  instanced  the  case  of  a 
tenant  named  Dwyer  on  the  property  of  Mr.  G.  D.  Stokes, 
J.P.,  who  on  being  evicted  from  his  holding  some  few  years 
ago  got  .£170  compensation  from  the  then  Chairman  of 
Quarter  Sessions ; but  the  landlord  appealing  to  the  assize 
court,  the  tenant  was  only  awarded  the  small  sum  of  ^2  7, 
and  the  landlord  got  ^900  fine  from  the  incoming  tenant. 
Another  case  of  hardship  was  that  of  a tenant,  named  Shea, 
living  at  Ahane,  on  the  Ballyseedy  estate,  of  which  Mr. 
Hussey  was  agent,  and  a great  many  years  ago  he  got  a 
piece  of  cut-away  bog.  He  improved  it  and  made  it  cul- 
tivable, and  he  was  afterwards  evicted  for  non-payment  of 
two  years’  rent  (^20),  the  rent  being  ten  times  the  valu- 
ation. That  man  and  his  family  were  now  living  in  a kind 
of  hut  like  a wigwam.  Mr.  O’Rourke  also  instanced  another 
case  of  hardship,  that  of  Mr.  Bateman,  of  Deelis,.  Castle- 
gregory,  who  owed  ;£ioo  rent,  and  debts  to  shopkeepers. 
Having  been  served  with  an  ejectment  process,  he  mort- 
gaged his  land  to  Mr.  Patrick  Bateman,  J.P.,  Tralee,  until 
the  debts  were  paid,  and  he  (the  witness)  said  the  result 
was,  that  the  tenant  was  now  turned  out  on  the  wayside, 
although  he  had  spent  1,000  in  improving  the  farm.  He 


The  Cause  of  Irish  Outrages . 93 

(Mr.  O’Rourke)  was  in  favour  of  the  reclamation  of  waste 
lands  ; there  were  4,000  acres  of  waste  lands  in  Kerry,  ar.d 
one-half  of  them  could  be  improved.  In  conclusion,  Mr. 
O’Rourke  said  he  believed  that  if  the  tenants  got  fixity  of 
tenure,  with  the  right  of  free  sale,  the  lands  to  be  valued  by 
arbitration  every  twenty  years,  it  would  be  a fair  solution  of 
the  question.  Pie  was  also  in  favour  of  a peasant  pro- 
prietary, and  of  tenant  right  in  towns.” 

The  Mr.  Beale  Browne  who  exacts  such  usu- 
rious rent  demands  a special  notice.  A few 
weeks  since  he  published  a letter  in  a Kerry 
paper,  in  which  he  dwelt  on  the  perilous  state 
of  the  times,  and  implored  all  the  landlords  in 
Ireland  to  meet  him  in  spirit  at  the  throne  of 
grace,  to  pray  for  their  mutual  interests.  But 
when  the  people  of  Kerry  were  on  the  point  of 
starvation,  we  did  not  hear  that  he  either  prayed 
for  them  or  gave  them  any  practical  proof  of 
his  piety.  All  this  is  especially  noted  by  a 
quick-witted  people. 

Indeed  we  know  another  similar  instance. 
Tralee  was  placarded  with  announcements  that 
the  land  agent  of  a large  Kerry  proprietor  was 
1‘  to  preach  the  Gospel  ’’  there  ; at  the  same 
time  he  was  actually  preventing  the  Gospel 
from  being  practised  on  his  master’s  estate. 
He  denied  the  distress  which  he  did  not  wish 
to  relieve  so  vehemently,  that  help  was  actually 
prevented  from  being  sent  to  the  people. 


94  The  case  of  Ireland  stated. 

The  following  extract  from  the  Freemans 
Journal  of  October  29th,  1880,  will  explain  an 
allusion  in  this  chapter : — 

“ The  Whitehall  Review  stated  last  week  that  Mr.  Hope 
Johnstone  had  been  the  victim  of  an  agrarian  outrage  on  his 
estates  in  Kerry.  Mr.  Johnstone  writes,  and  gives  a flat 
denial  to  the  canard , and  adds  that  he  lives  in  the  midst  of 
an  honest,  kindly,  and  industrious  tenantry,  being  on  the 
most  friendly  terms  with  his  neighbours.  Mr.  Legge,  who 
is  the  responsible  editor  of  the  paper,  and  who  signs  the 
series  of  paragraphs  entitled  ‘ Bureau  and  Salon/  cannot 
allow  the  correction  to  pass  without  adding  the  sneer  that 
he  cannot  regret  the  original  statement,  ‘ because  it  has 
elicited  the  information  that  there  is  a place  in  Ireland 
where  the  peasantry  are  honest,  kindly,  and  industrious. 
Many  of  us  might  have  gone  to  our  graves,  and  never  in  our 
wildest  dreams  imagined  such  a thing  possible.’  I may 
point  out  to  your  readers  that  this  is  the  print  in  which 
articles  styled  ‘ The  Morals  of  Merrion  Square  ’ appeared.” 

Now,  there  is  scarcely  ever  an  Irish  paper 
published  which  does  not  contain  some  such 
paragraphs  as  those  given  below,  which  show 
that  the  above  is  painfully  untrue.  How  un- 
fortunate it  is  for  the  educated  classes  in  England 
that  the  truth  is  so  persistently  kept  from  them, 
and  yet  the  truth  is  either  denied  or  carefully 
concealed  ; some  very  bad  motive  must  exist 
for  doing  so  : — 

“The  agent  of  Mr.  P.  Bartley,  who  attended  at  Westport 
yesterday,  for  the  collection  of  rents,  allowed  to  the  tenants 


The  Cause  of  Irish  Outrages . 


95 


50  per  cent,  on  all  arrears,  and  did  not  press  for  the  pay- 
ment of  the  gale  now  accruing.” — Cork  Examiner , October 
2,0th,  1880. 

“ Landlord  Generosity. — Mr.  Godfrey  T.  Baker,  Fort 
William,  County  Cork,  has  not  only  made  reductions  of 
rent  during  the  past  three  years  to  his  tenantry  at  Crough, 
Knockroe,  and  Colligan,  but  even  now,  when  the  prospect 
of  the  tenant  farmer  is  more  cheering,  he  has  allowed  his 
tenantry  a liberal  reduction  on  last  gale.  Mr.  Baker,  ac- 
companied by  his  esteemed  agent,  Mr.  Charles  Langley, 
visited  the  houses  of  his  tenants,  and  both  landlord  and 
agent  addressed  to  them  words  of  hope  and  comfort.” — 
Correspondent. 

“to  the  editor  of  the  freeman. 

“ Cootehill,  October  30th,  1880. 

“Sir, — It  is  my  pleasing  duty  to  place  on  record  a noble 
act  of  kindness  and  benevolence  on  the  part  of  the  landlord 
of  this  town  and  district,  Edward  Smith  Esq.,  J.P.,  of 
Bellamont  Forest,  Cootehill.  He  has  given  three  acres  of 
land  rent  free  for  ever,  in  a most  eligible  position,  adjoining 
his  demesne,  and  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  town,  for 
the  erection  of  a Convent  and  Schools  thereon.  By  this 
additional  act  of  generosity,  he  has  entitled  himself  anew  to 
the  thanks  and  gratitude  of  his  Catholic  tenantry.  May  he 
be  long  spared  to  live  amidst  a grateful  people,  and  may 
every  blessing  descend  and  abide  with  him,  his  excellent 
lady,  and  family. 

“ Faithfully  yours, 


“Francis  O’Reilly,  P.P.,  V.G.” 


CHAPTER  VI. 


WHAT  IS  COMMUNISM? 

“The  privilege  which  of  all  others  Ireland  most  desires  is  that  of 
being  permitted  to  work  and  to  cultivate  her  own  vast  wilderness.” — 
J.  H.  Tuke,  Nineteenth  Century , August , 1880. 

NE  of  the  great  difficulties  of  dealing 
with  any  vexed  social  question  is  that 
recrimination  so  often  takes  the  place 
of  argument.  Until  this  ceases,  it  is  hopeless 
to  expect  an  intelligent  attention  to  either  side 
of  the  question.  And  yet  the  question  may  be 
one  touching  the  very  foundation  of  the  whole 
social  state  of  a nation.  But,  strange  as  it  may 
seem,  this  very  disposition,  which  incapacitates 
men  from  the  fair  consideration  of  an  impor- 
tant question,  is  most  frequently  found  amongst 
those  who,  by  their  position,  by  their  education, 
and  not  unfrequently  by  their  intellectual  ability, 
are  precisely  those  who  might  be  expected  to 
consider  every  subject  dispassionately. 

I do  not  possess  any  special  gift  of  eloquence 
or  persuasion,  nor  have  I any  position,  social 
or  otherwise,  which  can  entitle  me  to  a special 


MISS  FAMF  PARNELL, 

Financial  Secretary  «l  the  “ Ladies'  Land  i,eas«e,” 


What  is  Communism  f 


97 


hearing.  But  I ask  each  reader  of  this  work, 
not  on  my  account  but  on  his  own,  to  give  a 
calm  and  thoughtful  attention  to  each  side  of 
this  most  important  question  now  before  the 
public.  He  is  bound  to  do  so  as  a Christian 
desiring-  the  benefit  of  all  his  fellow-Christians. 
He  is  bound  to  do  so  as  a man,  for  he  is  un- 
worthy of  his  manhood  who  allows  himself  to 
be  influenced  by  passion  or  prejudice.  He  is 
bound  to  do  so  as  a patriot — I venture  to  use 
the  much-abused  word — for  a man  who  does 
not  love  his  patria , his  country,  his  fatherland, 
is  not  worthy  of  it ; and  such  a man,  most 
assuredly,  has  no  right  whatsoever  to  take  a 
part  in  the  government  of  that  fathe/land. 

Let  us,  then,  cast  aside  recrimination,  and 
send  prejudice  to  the  nursery,  its  proper  abode. 

It  cannot,  I think,  be  denied,  that  the  great 
majority  of  Englishmen  of  all  social  classes  and 
of  all  creeds,  had  a very  strong  prejudice 
against  Ireland.  This  was  caused,  as  we  have 
said,  by  historical  inaccuracy  ; they  naturally 
believed  what  was  said  about  Ireland  histori- 
cally, and  were  prejudiced  ; they  came  to 
certain  conclusions  as  to  Irish  character  and 
habits,  contrary  to  fact,  and  having  formed  their 
judgment  on  false  premises,  their  conclusions 
were  wrong — often  substantially  so. 


98  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated \ 

But,  undoubtedly,  there  is  a change  for  the 
better.  In  the  most  bitterly  anti-Irish  articles 
written  to-day  in  the  glow  of  hot  social  con- 
troversy, there  are  evident  gleams  of  light. 
Even  the  Conservative  Frazer  admitted  an 
article  on  Irish  Land  Reform , though  with  the 
curiously  significant  addendum  “from  an  Irish 
point  of  view.”  1 

Hence  there  is  a gleam  of  light,  and  let  us 
hope  the  gleam  is  the  precursor  of  full  sunshine. 

But  there  is  the  difficulty,  the  almost  insuper- 
able difficulty,  of  recrimination.  It  is  not  logical, 
and  it  is  not  wise.  Why  should  Irishmen  be 
classed  with  Communists  when  they  ask  for 
reform  of  the  land  laws  ? Why,  the  very  asking 
for  legal  reform  should  at  once  protect  them 
from  such  an  imputation.  Do  those  who  cast 
at  them  the  epithet  of  Communists  know  what 
Communism  means  ? 

An  immense  amount  of  nonsense,  sheer,  pure 
nonsense,  has  been  written  on  this  subject. 
Communism  is  not  proceeding  by  the  way  of 
law,  it  is  proceeding  by  the  way  of  violence. 
But  it  will  be  said  at  once,  and  said  truly,  there 
is  violence  in  Ireland  ; and  demands  have  been 
made  which  came  very  near  Communism. 


1 Frazer's  Magazine,  March,  1880. 


What  is  Communism  f 


99 


There  has  been  violence  in  Ireland,  and 
though  it  is  made  a subject  of  criminative  re- 
proach in  England,  one  day  it  will  be  known  how 
far  more  deeply  and  truly  it  was  deplored  in  Ire- 
land. But  that  time  has  yet  to  come,  and  we 
have  to  do  with  the  present. 

I will  ask  you  to  remember  the  state  in  which 
Ireland  has  been  during  the  winter  of  1879-80. 
Later  I shall  enter  more  fully  into  this  subject. 
Here  I offer  only  two  English  witnesses. 

The  special  correspondent  of  the  Daily 
Telegraph  wrote  thus  : — 

“ What  with  smoke  and  the  lack  of  openings,  these  cabins 
are  almost  dark  even  at  midday.  Such,  ye  gentlemen  of  Eng- 
land, is  a Donegal  cabin  in  this  present  advanced  year  of 
grace,  and  in  such  manner  do  thousands  live  within  two  days’ 
journey  of  the  capital  of  your  mighty  Empire.  The  fact,  you 
will  admit,  is  not  one  to  boast  of.  I verily  believe  that  Cete- 
wayo  would  not  have  permitted  his  Zulus  to  be  housed  like 
these  wretched  people.  Uniformly  miserable  as  are  the 
cabins,  the  misery  of  their  inmates  is  a little  diversified. 
In  one  place  we  find  the  mother  preparing  —what  do  you 
think  ? — a dish  of  seaweed  wherewith  to  flavour  the  Indian 
meal  obtained  from  the  relief  funds  ! I am  not  joking. 
God  forbid.  Her  children  have  gone  to  the  shore  and 
gathered  the  stuff,  and  while  I look  on  she  prepares  it  for 
cooking. 

The  truth  was  the  Irish  famine  was  not  half 
credited  by  England.  But  when  it  is  remem- 


ioo  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

bered  that  the  people  of  the  north-west,  and  of 
part  of  the  south  and  west  of  Ireland  were  in 
such  a miserable  condition,  is  it  any  wonder  that 
there  would  be  outrages — that  men  who  have 
asked  in  vain  for  legal  redress  take  the  law  into 
their  own  hands.  The  subject  of  wonder  is  not 
that  there  have  been  outrages,  but  that  there 
have  been  so  few.  As  a proof  of  this,  I may 
add,  that  when  Mr.  Gibson,  M.P.,  strove  to 
excite  his  Orange  audience  in  the  north  of  Ire- 
land  against  their  brothers  in  the  south,  the 
worst,  and  the  only  case  of  violence  towards 
women  he  could  find  for  his  text,  was  one  in 
which  two  women’s  hair  had  been  cut  off. 

But  there  is  a second  cause.  Every  gentle- 
man who  gave  a vote  against  Mr.  Gladstone's 
Compensation  for  Disturbance  Bill  is  a cause  of 
the  present  disturbance  in  Ireland.  Now,  I 
do  not  say  for  one  moment  that  no  outrages 
would  have  happened  if  that  Bill  had  passed, 
but,  undoubtedly,  it  tore  the  last  hope  of  legal 
justice  from  England  from  the  hearts  of  a 
famine-crushed  people. 

But  it  will  be  said  that  demands  have  been 
made  that  are  Communistic.  Now  we  come  to 
define  our  terms,  and  ask  what  is  Communism  ? 
It  is  the  devil’s  parody  of  God’s  eternal  truth. 


What  is  Communism  t ioi 

Evil  is  the  negation  of  good.  Every  evil  is  an 
exaggeration  more  or  less  horrible  on  what  is 
good  ; and  the  more  clearly  we  see  this,  the 
sooner  we  shall  clear  the  moral  atmosphere 
of  our  thoughts. 

Liberty,  equality,  fraternity — why,  these  are 
divine;  But  an  enemy  has  sown  cockles  with 
the  wheat.  Liberty!  Has  not  an  English  poet 
said  : — 

“ He  is  a freeman  whom  the  truth  makes  free, 

And  all  are  slaves  beside.” 

Liberty  ! Is  it  not  the  pride  of  a nation,  of  a 
people,  of  an  individual  ? So  long  as  liberty 
remains  pure  it  is  divine ; when  it  becomes 
licentious,  then  it  ceases  to  be  liberty  and 
becomes  evil.  This  is  Communism.  It  is  not 
licentious  for  a man  to  ask  liberty — to  ask  laws 
which  will  enable  him  to  live  in  decency  and 
comfort  in  his  own  country. 

But  when  such  laws  are  refused,  when  the 
rich  and  powerful  are  protected  by  law ; and 
when  the  mass  of  the  people  are  refused 
redress,  and  left  in  a worse  condition  than  the 
Zulus,1  and  in  a normal  condition  which  would 
test  the  temper  of  a slave  coast  African,2  then, 


1 Daily  Telegraph  Special  Correspondent. 

2 Pastoral  of  the  Catholic  Archbishop  of  Dublin. 


102  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

indeed,  there  is  a terrible  fear  that  men  may  be 
driven  by  hopelessness  of  redress  from  the  law 
to  hopefulness  of  redress  by  violence. 

Equality ! What  is  this  but  an  eternal  and 
sublime  truth,  that  the  well-being  of  peer  and 
peasant,  of  learned  and  unlearned,  are  equal  in 
the  sight  of  their  Maker,  and  should  be  equally 
respected  by  all.  The  poor  are  not  often 
envious,  but  when  a time  comes  in  which  they 
find  themselves  left  to  starve  with  less  con- 
cern than  if  they  were  brutes — for  rich  men 
care  for  their  cattle — then  there  is  fear  lest  they 
should  demand  an  equality  which  is  not  divine ; 
lest  they  should  demand  the  whole  of  those 
good  things  of  which  before  they  only  asked 
a little. 

Fraternity!  How  sublime  a word,  and  yet 
how  often  abused  to  the  vilest  purpose.  Chris- 
tian fraternity  leads  us  even  to  sacrifice  our- 
selves for  our  brethren ; the  fraternity  of  evil 
sacrifices  all  others  to  its  own  crimes  and 
violence. 

Where  was  the  fraternity  exhibited  in  the 
Famine  year  by  the  rich  landlord  to  the  poor 
tenant  ? I am  certain  that  the  truth  will  not 
be  believed,  and  yet  it  is  not  less  true.  Here 
is  what  an  American  special  correspondent  has 
said  on  this  subject,  and  let  it  be  remembered 


What  is  Communism  f 


103 


that  this  statement  has  been  read  by  millions  of 
Irish  in  America  who,  remembering  a former 
famine  year,  but  too  readily  believe  it  true  : — 

“The  New  York  Tribune  sent  Mr.  James  Redpath  to 
Ireland  to  investigate  affairs.  Mr.  Redpath  is  anything  but 
pro-Irish.  Yet  this  is  the  information  he  communicates 
from  Dublin  : 1 There  is  an  impression  in  America — which 
I shared — that  the  agitation  against  the  landed  proprietors 
in  Ireland  is  an  agrarian  movement.  It  is  nothing  of  the 
sort.  It  is  an  honest  effort  to  remove  the  causes  of  the 
famine.  I find  that  every  priest  of  intelligence — every  man 
whom  I have  met  and  who  has  studied  the  effects  of  the 
present  system  of  land  tenure — shares  in  the  indignation  so 
deeply  and  widely  felt  among  the  peasantry  against  the 
landlords  and  their  land  laws.  The  evidence  is  overwhelm- 
ing, and  comes  from  every  county,  to  show  that  the  land- 
lords of  Ireland  are  not  contributing  a shilling  to  the  relief 
funds ; but,  as  a class,  they  are  mercilessly  enforcing  their 
legal  claims  to  their  pound  of  flesh  from  their  starving 
tenants.’  ” 


I know  Mr.  Redpath  personally.  He  is 
English  by  immediate  descent ; he  came  to 
Ireland  simply  as  a matter  of  business,  as  corre- 
spondent to  an  American  paper ; not,  be  it 
noted,  to  an  Irish  American  or  Catholic  paper. 
Mr.  Redpath  assured  me  that  so  far  from  hav- 
ing any  prejudice  in  favour  of  Ireland,  he  was 
prejudiced  against  it,  but  facts  were  too  much 
for  him. 


104  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 

One  might  as  well  expect  a battle  to  be 
fought  without  murder  and  plunder  and  vio- 
lence, as  expect  a great  social  upheaving  of  a 
nation  to  be  carried  through  without  some 
crime.  The  statesman  who  tries  to  avert  the 
recurrence  of  war  is  wiser  than  the  man  who 
writes  diatribes  of  useless  invective  on  its  evils. 
The  statesman  who  calmly  considers  the  cause 
of  social  disturbance  and  removes  it,  is  wiser 
than  the  angry  politician  who  utters  a torrent 
of  abuse  and  never  attempts  a solid  remedy. 
Men  who  have  honoured  Garibaldi,  welcomed 
Mazzini,  and  praised  Bismarck,  should  be  the 
last  to  reproach  Ireland  with  Communism. 
Communism  denies  all  the  rights  of  property ; 
Ireland  asks  that  the  rights  of  property  should 
be  protected  by  law.  But  some  Irish  landlords, 
a vast  majority,  we  fear,  wish  to  have  the  rights 
of  property  in  their  own  hands,  and  not  regu- 
lated by  law,  hinc  illce  lacrymce . 


CHAPTER  VII. 


WHAT  THE  IRISH  NATION  ASKS. 

“ Let  not  the  law  of  thy  country  be  the  non  ulfra  of  thy  honesty,  not 
think  that  always  good  enough  which  the  law  will  allow  or  make 
good.  ” — Sir  Thomas  Browne. 

F what  was  written  above  some  two 
centuries  since  by  an  English  doctor 
and  philosopher,  met  with  more  general 
acceptance,  there  would  be  less  trouble  in  the 
world.  It  is  Christain  charity  and  common 
sense. 

The  Irish  people  do  not  ask  for  a complete, 
or  any,  subversion  of  law  and  order  notwith- 
standing Mr.  Froude’s  wild  utterances,  over 
which  he  must  surely  have  blushed  as  he  wrote 
them.1 

“ Seven  hundred  years  have  now  passed  since  Henry  the 
Second  attached  Ireland  to  the  English  Crown  : for  all  those 
years  successive  English  administrations  have  pretended  to 
govern  there ; and  as  a result  we  saw  in  the  last  winter  the 
miserable  Irish  people  sending  their  emissaries,  hat  in  hand, 
round  the  globe  to  beg  for  sixpences  for  God’s  sake  to  save 
them  from  starving.  The  Irish  soil,  if  it  were  decently  cul- 
tivated, would  feed  twice  the  population  which  now  occu- 


1 Mr.  Froude  in  the  Nineteenth  Century , Sept.,  1880. 


i o6  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 

pies  it ; but  in  every  garden  there  grow  a hundred  weeds  for 
one  potato.  If  a landlord  ejects  an  inefficient  tenant,  and 
gives  the  land  to  some  one  who  will  grow  potatoes  and  not 
weeds,  gangs  of  ruffians  with  blackened  faces  drive  out  the 
new-comer,  or  the  landlord  himself  is  shot,  like  Lord  Leitrim, 
at  his  own  door,  as  a warning  to  his  kind.  The  Irish  repre- 
sentatives in  Parliament  tell  their  constituents  to  pay  no  rent 
except  when  it  is  convenient  to  them,  yet  to  hold  fast  by 
their  farms,  and  defy  the  landlord  to  expel  them  : while  the 
only  remedy  which  the  English  Government  could  devise, 
since  the  people  would  not  obey  the  law,  was  to  alter  the 
law  to  please  them,  and  to  propose  that  for  two  seasons  at 
least  the  obligation  to  pay  their  rents  should  be  suspended.” 

The  gardens  where  a hundred  weeds  grow 
for  every  potato,  must  be  of  a very  remark- 
able character,  and  we  think  every  case  of 
ejectment  in  Ireland  shows  that  tenants  are 
evicted,  not  because  they  do  not  “ grow 
potatoes,”  but  because  they  do  not  pay  impos- 
sible rents  Irish  landlords  are  not  shot  every 
day.  Lord  Leitrim  was  not  shot  at  his  own 
door.  Irish  members  of  parliament  do  not  tell 
the  people  to  pay  no  rent  except  when  con- 
venient. Irish  people  knowing  how  utterly  false 
all  this  is,  what  respect  can  they  have  for  the 
English  nation  when  they  find  such  utter  non- 
sense stated  as  if  it  was  gospel  truth  ? 

He  has  chosen  deliberately  to  misrepresent  the 
Compensation  for  Disturbance  Bill,  and,  as  any 
one,  whether  he  approved  of  that  bill  or  not,  can 


What  the  Irish  Nation  asks.  107 

see  at  a glance  that  it  is  misrepresented,  we  must 
say  wilfully,  unless  Mr.  Froude  possibly  may 
not  be  capable  of  using  his  reason  when  Irish 
affairs  are  concerned.  But  all  this  is  very  well 
for  those  who  know  him,  but  he  appeals  to  a great 
number  of  readers  who,  not  being  aware  of  his 
idiosyncracy,  will  take  his  statements  for  truth. 

He  is,  however,  by  no  means  the  only  offender 
on  this  point,  and  probably  he  is  less  to  blame 
than  many.  Let  me  then  put  before  the  reader, 
who  prefers  fact  to  fiction,  what  it  is  the  Irish 
people  ask,  and  why  they  ask  it. 

A land  meeting  took  place  in  Limerick  on 
November  1st,  to  receive  and  honour  Mr. 
Parnell,  and  at  that  meeting  70,000  people  were 
present. 

“ Mr.  William  Abraham,  who  was  warmly  received,  pro- 
posed the  first  resolution  : — 

“‘That  we  demand,  as  a strict  right  from  the  English 
Government,  such  an  immediate  settlement  of  the  land 
question  as  will  save  us  from  the  capricious  raising  of  rents 
and  eviction,  and  which  will  ultimately  make  the  cultivators 
of  the  soil  also  the  owners  ’ (cheers). 

John  Bright,  the  friend  of  the  Irish  people,  had  said  that  he 
could  imagine  such  a state  of  things  in  Ireland  as  would 
make  a settlement  of  the  land  question  possible — namely, 
when  Ireland  was  united  under  the  Land  League  and  was 
menacing  England  if  it  refused  to  yield.  That  was  their 
condition  at  present ; they  were  united  to-day,  and  they 


108  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

would  remain  united  until  the  land  question  was  settled 
(hear,  hear).” 

“ Mr.  Synan,  M.P.,  in  supporting  it  was  warmly  received. 
He  said — Mr.  Chairman,  as  the  day  is  a day  of  action  and 
not  of  words,  I will  find  it  necessary  to  be  brief,  and  I believe 
I will  be  brief,  and  will  also  do  justice  to  this  resolution,  by 
pointing  to  my  acts  and  words  for  twenty  years  in  the  cause 
of  tenant-right  (cheers).  The  men  of  the  County  Limerick 
know  what  sacrifices  I made  twenty  years  ago,  when  I raised 
the  standard  of  tenant-right  in  this  county  (cheers).  I need 
only  point  to  the  existing  monument  of  that  sacrifice,  which 
stands  six  miles  away  from  the  spot  on  which  I address  you, 
and  which,  I believe,  every  one  of  you  is  acquainted  with, 
where  my  mother,  at  the  age  of  eighty-six  years,  was  evicted 
from  a house  that  cost  £200,  by  an  absentee  landlord, 
because  I raised  the  standard  of  tenant-right  in  this  county 
(cheers).  Bad  as  Mr.  Gladstone’s  Act  is,  and  bad  as  I 
thought  it  always  was,  that  injustice  could  not  now  be  per- 
petrated (cheers).  You  cannot  evict  a man  out  of  his  house 
now  without  paying  him.  She  was  evicted  out  of  her  house 
without  any  compensation,  and  I had  to  procure  another 
residence  for  her.  Well,  I carried  out  the  spirit  and  the 
words  of  that  resolution,  in  opposing  the  principle  of  Mr. 
Gladstone’s  Bill  of  1870,  as  you  will  find  in  my  speeches,  as 
reported  in  “ Hansard’s  Debates.”  I opposed  it,  because  it 
was  my  opinion  that  it  would  lead  to  the  consolidation  of 
farms  (cheers).  It  has  led  to  the  consolidation  of  farms. 

At  a Land  Meeting,  held  at  Clonmel,  County 
Tipperary,  at  which  25,000  people  attended  : — 

“ Count  Moore,  M.P.,  who  was  warmly  received,  proposed 
the  first  resolution  : — ‘ that  the  periodical  depression,  deepen- 
ing into  famine,  with  which  Ireland,  a fertile  country,  is 


What  the  Irish  Nation  asks.  109 

afflicted,  proves  incontestibly  that  the  laws  which  hamper 
the  cultivation  of  the  soil  are  unsuited  to  the  present  state 
of  society,  and  demand  radical  changes.’  He  had,  he  said, 
travelled  a long  distance  to  be  present  at  that  meeting,  for 
he  felt  not  only  that  it  was  due  to  his  constituents,  but  to 
his  own  sympathy  with  every  generous  impulse  and  every 
lofty  inspiration  that  warmed  the  hearts  of  Tipperary  men. 
In  the  cause  that  lay  at  the  root  of  all  their  miseries  con- 
nected with  the  Irish  land,  was  the  absenteeism,  which 
drained  so  much  of  their  money  out  ot  the  country.  Another 
cause  of  the  great  distress  was  the  harsh  and  inelastic  Poor 
Law,  which  never  adapted  itself  to  the  wants  of  the  Irish 
poor,  but,  in  fact,  set  a premium  upon  extermination.  The 
Irish  land  laws  were  not  paralleled  by  the  land  laws  of  any 
other  country  in  the  world ; but  now,  he  firmly  believed, 
they  were  on  the  eve  of  a final  settlement  of  the  land 
question.  Everybody — landlords  as  well  as  tenants — were 
calling  out  for  it ; and  he  believed  the  landlords  were  only 
too  anxious  for  a fair  settlement,  such  as  fixity  of  tenure, 
fair  rents,  and  free  sale  (loud  and  prolonged  cheering). 
He  wished  to  see  the  farmers  of  Ireland  owning  their  own 
lands,  but  he  should  say  frankly  that  he  was  not  in  favour 
of  expropriating  the  landlords.  He  did  not  believe  that 
would  better  the  condition  of  any  class  in  the  community. 
He  believed  that  they  could  and  would,  next  session,  get 
from  the  Government  a measure  of  peasant  proprietary. 
He  would  have  free  land,  and  by  removing  the  restrictions 
by  which  owners  were  at  present  hampered,  and  prevented 
from  selling.  He  would  also  have  a Government  depart- 
ment to  manage  the  sale  and  purchase  of  properties  on 
behalf  of  the  tenantry ; and  he  would,  in  the  next  place, 
offer  inducements  to  the  landlords  to  sell  to  their  tenants. 
He  would  have  some  pressure  also  applied  to  the  absentee 
landlords,  who  spent  their  money  in  London  and  Paris,  and 


IIO 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


gave  no  aid  whatever  to  relieve  the  distress  of  the  country. 
A good  deal  might  be  done  in  that  way  by  putting  all  the 
poor  rate  and  county  cess  on  the  absentees.  The  objection 
often  raised  to  the  establishment  of  peasant  proprietary — 
namely,  that  the  tenants  would  not  pay  the  rents  to  the 
State — he  believed  to  be  unfounded.  For  the  Irish  people 
were  not  a nation  of  robbers,  and  they  never  objected  to  the 
payment  of  a just  debt.  He  next  warned  the  people  not  to 
be  led  astray  by  persons  who  were  trying  to  cause  dissen- 
sion between  themselves  and  their  clergy,  with  whom  they 
should  stand  or  fall  (applause).  The  people  had  the  settle- 
ment of  the  land  question  in  their  own  hands,  and  it  could 
not  be  prevented,  except  they  took  to  ways  of  violence  and 
crime,  which  would  estrange  from  them  the  sympathy  of  all 
honest  men  (applause). 

“The  Rev.  Father  Meagher,  C.C.,  Irishtown,  Clonmel, 
seconded  the  resolution,  and  said  that  in  all  constitutional 
struggles  the  priests  would  be  faithful  to  the  people,  and 
when  wanted  they  were  irresistible.  The  present  land 
agitation  was  perfectly  legitimate,  and  if  he  thought  that  the 
Land  League  directly  or  indirectly  incited  to  crime  he  would 
not,  for  all  the  gold  in  Peru,  have  any  connection  with  it. 
They  tried  to  remove  the  cause  of  crime  in  this  country,  and 
when  they  had  done  that  the  crime  would  disappear.  What 
the  Irish  farmers  wanted  was  fixity  of  tenure,  fair  rents,  and 
free  sale. 

“The  resolution  was  supported  by  Mr.  Leamy,  M.P.” 

At  a meeting  at  Ballinahinch — 

“The  Rev.  Mr.  M‘Keon,  P.P.,  moved  the  first  resolution 
as  follows : — 

“ ‘ That  we  declare  the  system  of  landlordism  created  by 
an  immoral  conquest  to  be  the  mainstay  of  English  misrule 
and  oppression  in  Ireland  ; that  it  has  been  the  cause  of  the 


What  the  Irish  Nation  asks. 


1 1 1 

depopulation  and  impoverishment  of  a fair  and  fertile  land, 
created  by  God  for  the  Irish  people,  and  that  the  laws  that 
sustain  and  perpetuate  it  being  contrary  to  right,  reason, 
justice,  and  humanity,  incapable  of  adequate  amendment, 
and  opposed  to  the  national  aspirations  of  our  countrymen, 
we  demand  their  abolition,  and  the  establishment  of  such 
proprietary  rights  in  the  soil  as  will  secure  to  the  industrious 
occupier  the  permanent  possession  of  his  home,  and  the 
fruits  of  his  industry.’ 

They  had  not  assembled  for  the  purpose  of  doing  an  injus- 
tice, or  expressing  the  opinion  that  they  ought  to  do  injustice 
to  any  man — they  were  there  to  assert  their  rights.  Land- 
lordism as  established  in  this  country  was  an  oppression  and 
a degradation  placed  upon  the  industrious  farmer.  They 
did  not  want  emigration — they  wanted  the  people  to  live 
at  home,  and  they  wanted  from  the  Government  that  ruled 
them  strongly  but  not  well,  nothing  else  but  a recognition  of 
the  right  to  live  in  Ireland,  created  by  God  for  the  Irish 
people.” 

At  a meeting  at  Bawnboy,  county  Cavan — 

“ Mr.  Baxter  proposed — 

“ ‘ Resolved — That  as  the  present  system  of  tenure  of 
land  is  the  cause  of  our  country’s  poverty,  we  demand  its 
abolition,  and  the  substitution  therefor  of  a system  that  will 
make  the  cultivator  of  the  soil  the  owner  thereof.’ 

At  the  plantation  of  Ulster  the  undertakers  got  their  lands 
at  i os  per  60  acres,  or  at  i^d  per  acre  ; but  in  the  moun- 
tains there  were  no  rents,  and  since  that  time  the  improve- 
ments had  been  made  by  the  farmers.  In  the  year  1802 
there  was  a valuation  of  the  whole  kingdom,  and  that 
barony  of  Tullyhaw  lying  between  two  mountains  was  valued 
at  1 os.  They  were  there  that  day  to  support  that  noble 
patriot,  Charles  Stewart  Parnell,  and  the  Land  League  in 


1 12 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 


trying  to  have  their  grievances  redressed,  and  they  would 
resolve  not  to  pay  rents  higher  than  the  Government  valuation. 

“ The  Very  Rev.  Dean  ATGovern  seconded  the  resolution. 
There  would  always  be  unity  between  the  priests  and  people 
of  the  parish.  What  brought  them  there  that  day  ? 

“A  Voice — ‘The  reduction  of  exorbitant  rents.’ 

“ Dean  M ‘Govern — Not  any  communistic  or  socialistic 
purpose,  but  to  look  for  fair  play  (cheers) — to  look  for  the 
breaking  down  of  the  grievances  under  which  the  people 
groaned.  He  had  been  living  in  the  parish  for  thirty  years, 
and  he  could  safely  declare  that  half  of  the  people  were 
living  in  a state  of  starvation ; they  were  processed  and 
decreed  and  not  able  to  clothe  their  little  ones  (true,  your 
reverence).  As  Bishop  Berkeley,  a Protestant  divine,  had 
said,  on  the  face  of  the  earth  there  were  no  people  so  badly 
fed  or  clothed  as  the  Irish  people  (cheers  for  Bishop  Berke- 
ley). What  did  he  attribute  this  to?  To  the  landlords  who 
were  taking  away  the  money  out  of  the  country,  and  had  the 
power  of  extorting  it.” 

“A  meeting  was  held  to-day  at  Kilreecle,  a neat  village 
four  miles  from  Loughrea.  Early  in  the  morning  contingents 
poured  in  from  the  surrounding  districts.  A body  of  five 
hundred  stalwart  men  from  Killalaghlin,  wearing  green  sashes. 
At  the  front  of  this  contingent  four  men  carried  a green  silk 
banner,  on  which  was  the  figure  of  Erin  weeping  for  her 
children.  The  contingent  was  headed  by  the  Rev.  P.  Burke, 
Kilreecle.  A contingent  from  Loughrea,  accompanied  by 
the  brass  band,  headed  by  Fathers  Egan  and  Cunningham. 
The  Loughrea,  Killalaghlin,  and  Donary  contingents  pro- 
ceeded to  meet  the  men  of  Bullane  and  Gurteen.  The 
procession,  with  its  bands  and  banners,  at  the  head  of  which 
rode  the  Rev.  P.  Flanagan  and  the  Rev.  P.  Coghlan,  pre- 
sented a grand  spectacle.  The  procession  then  proceeded 
to  the  platform,  in  the  centre  of  a field  given  by  the  owner, 


What  the  Irish  Nation  Asks.  113 

Mr.  Ryan,  for  the  purpose.  The  chair  was  taken  amidst 
applause  by  the 

“Rev.  P.  Flanagan,  Kilreecle. 

“ Amongst  those  on  the  platform  were — 

“ Rev.  P.  Burke,  Rev.  P.  Flanagan,  Rev.  P.  Cunningham, 
Rev.  P.  Egan,  Rev.  T.  Head,  Rev.  D.  Coghlan,  Rev.  J. 
M'Keigue,  Rev.  J.  Canning,  Captain  Dunne,  Chicago ; J. 
Ryan,  J.  Burke,  J.  Kilmartin,  D.  Connor  Carton ; G.  Larkin, 
E.  Kean,  J.  Sweeney,  J.  Hubon,  J.  Kirwan,  M.  Fahy,  M. 
Egan,  T.  Griffin,  &c. 

“ A Government  notetaker  was  allowed  on  the  platform 
A large  force  of  police  were  present  in  charge  of  S.I.  Barry. 

“ The  following  letters  of  apology  were  received  : — 

“ ‘ Loughrea,  October  30th. 

“ ‘ Sir, — My  earnest  desire  was,  and  still  is,  to  witness  a 
settlement  of  the  land  question  on  principles  that  will  secure 
to  owners  and  occupiers  those  rights  that  have  their  sanction 
in  the  laws  of  justice.  Less  than  this  neither  should  accept. 
More  than  this  neither  should  claim.  That  a crisis  has 
come  which  renders  an  adjustment  of  those  rights  inevitable 
appears  to  be  agreed  by  all  reflecting  minds.  It  may  be 
that  extremes  on  either  side  may  mar  or  help  to  defer  this 
adjustment.  To  every  observer  it  is  clear  a settlement  is 
essential  to  the  prosperity  of  the  country. — I am  yours, 

“ ‘ 4*  P.  Duggan. 

“‘M,  Keane,  Secretary.’” 

“A  Voice — ‘ Three  cheers  for  Dr.  Duggan,' 

“Another — ‘Three  for  Dr.  Croke.’ 

“ ‘ Ballinasloe,  30th  October. 

“ ‘ Dear  Sir, — I have  to  thank  you  for  your  invitation  to 
the  meeting  to  be  held.  I regret  the  duties  of  Sunday  will 
prevent  me  being  with  you,  at  the  same  time  I concur  with 


1 1 4 The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

the  object  of  your  meeting.  I hope  it  shall  be  successful. 
The  ground  you  stand  on  gives  evidence  of  the  necessity  of 
agitation  and  enlightening  the  public  mind  of  England  on 
the  unsatisfactory  condition  of  the  land  system  in  Ireland. 
The  beautiful  plains  between  Ballinasloe  and  Loughrea  are 
entirely  depopulated,  its  former  inhabitants  driven  into  exile 
or  perished  in  the  workhouse.  Thus  the  trade  of  the  town  is 
paralysed,  while  the  tillers  of  the  soil  are  left  on  the  barren 
lands  of  the  highland.  It  is  time  the  hand  of  the  victor 
should  be  stayed,  and  the  peasant  should  be  secured  in  his 
holding.  Till  this  is  done  no  wonder  the  energies  of  our 
people  should  be  damaged,  and  industry  be  wanting.  Your 
meeting,  by  joining  in  the  demand  for  a settlement  of  this 
question,  shall  have  done  much  to  bring  peace  to  Ireland. — 
I am  yours,  “ ‘ J.  K.  Molony.’” 

“ Letters  of  apology  were  read  from  the  Rev.  M.  Badger, 
Rev;  A.  Griffin,  Rev.  J.  P.  MThilipin,  M.  Harris,  M.  Ryan, 
and  P.  Broderick.” 

All  these  and  the  following  meetings  were 
held  during  the  last  fortnight  of  October  or 

c>  o 

first  week  in  November. 

At  Cahirciveen,  where  the  severest  distress 
occurred  in  the  famine. 

“At  three  o’clock  the  chair  was  taken  by  the  Very  Rev. 
Canon  Brosnan,  P.P.,  V.G.,  Cahirciveen.  Almost  all  the 
clergy  of  the  deanery  were  present  on  the  platform,  and  the 
traders  of  the  town  and  the  farmers  of  the  barony  were  well 
represented.  A Government  reporter  took  notes  of  the 
proceedings,  as  did  also  two  amateurs  of  the  Royal  Irish 
Constabulary. 

“The  Very  Rev.  Chairman,  who  was  enthusiastically 
received,  proceeded  to  say,  when  the  cheering  had  subsided — 


What  the  Irish  Nation  Asks . 


1 5 


My  friends  and  fellow-countrymen,  I have  to  thank  you  for 
the  honour  conferred  on  me  of  presiding  at  this  great  meet- 
ing— a meeting,  I am  happy  to  say,  which  has  the  sanction 
and  best  wishes  of  our  revered  bishop.  The  object  of  our 
meeting  is  to  confer  together  on  the  great  and  all-absorbing 
question  of  the  day — the  land  question.  A mighty  effort, 
unexampled  in  extent  and  rapidity,  is,  you  are  aware,  being 
now  made  to  settle  that  question  by  a thoroughly  effective 
and  comprehensive  measure  of  land  reform  (cheers).  Reso- 
lutions affecting  it  will  be  proposed  here  to-day  for  your 
consideration,  and,  if  you  so  think  fit,  for  your  adoption  ; 
and  I trust  the  gentlemen  who  will  address  you  in  reference 
to  them  will  be  listened  to  with  that  respectful  attention 
which  has  characterised  other  public  meetings  in  this  town, 
and  which  the  present  great  subject  so  eminently  deserves 
(hear,  hear).  I do,  indeed,  most  earnestly  hope  and  pray 
that  no  idle  or  foolish  remarks  will  be  indulged  in  at  this 
meeting,  nor  anything  unseemly  occur  thereat,  or  in  con- 
nection with  it ; and  that  when  the  proceedings  are  over 
you  will  all  soon  set  out  for  your  respective  homes  soberly 
and  peaceably.  Fellow-countrymen,  I am  most  willing  and 
determined  to  further  in  every  way  within  my  humble  ability 
the  great  and  just  cause  for  which  we  are  here  assembled 
(cheers).  But  you  will  allow  me  most  respectfully  to  say 
that  I can  do  so  only  on  condition  that  the  movement  be 
peacefully  and  constitutionally  conducted  in  our  midst,  and 
that  violence  and  outrages  of  all  sorts  in  connection  with  it 
(which  may  God  forbid  should  occur)  be  reprobated  by  you 
as  they  should  ever  be.  Oh,  my  friends,  what  else,  I ask, 
could  such  do  but  mar  your  good  cause  whilst  they  war 
against  heaven  ? Never,  indeed,  was  that  saying  of  our 
great  and  illustrious  countryman  (great  cheering),  who  drew 
his  first  breath  yonder  there,  truer  or  more  appropriate  than 
at  the  present  juncture  of  the  land  movement — namely,  that 


1 1 6 The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

“He  who  commits  a crime  gives  strength  to  the  enemy. 
People  of  Iveragh,  numerous  land  meetings  have  been  held 
in  various  parts  of  Ireland ; but,  I ask  you,  is  there  a spot 
from  the  Giant’s  Causeway  to  Cape  Clear,  or  from  Conne- 
mara to  the  Hill  of  Howth,  where  one  was  more  needed 
than  in  Iveragh  ? (Loud  cries  of  ‘ no,  no.’)  Is  there  any 
other  place  where  poorer  or  more  miserable,  or  more  rack- 
rented,  or  worse  fed,  or  worse  clothed,  or  worse  housed 
poor  people  are  to  be  found,  aye,  in  thousands  and  tens  of 
thousands,  than  in  Iveragh?  Look  at  this  wretched  town, 
the  heart  and  centre  of  the  barony.  Look  at  its  filthy  lanes 
and  hovels  ; look  at  its  highways  and  byways,  its  streets  and 
its  sidewalks  ; look  at  the  country  south  and  west  of  it,  and 
stretching  on  for  miles — all  a dreary  picture  of  misery  and 
neglect ; and  all,  both  town  and  country,  managed  by  a 
wealthy  corporation.  Is  it,  therefore,  to  be  wondered  at  that 
strangers  coming  here  and  seeing  such  a wretched  condition 
of  things,  have  painted  and  described  them  as  a disgrace  to 
humanity  and  a scandal  to  the  Empire  (cheers)?  Whatever 
be  said  or  done  about  expropriating  landlords,  can  there  be 
I ask,  a second  opinion  that  these  learned  divines  and 
managers  ought  to  be  wholly  relegated  to  their  books  and  to 
their  prayers  ? (Cheers  and  laughter.)  Then  look  at  the 
great  Liberal  renegade’s  Iveragh  tenants — I humbly  beg  my 
noble  friend’s  pardon — look  at  the  great  Marquis’s  Iveragh 
tenants,  and  see  how  at  almost  every  decade  or  recurrence 
of  a few  years  of  sunshine,  the  poor  terror-stricken  serfs  have 
been,  I won’t  say  pounced  upon,  let  us  say  visited,  with  the  in- 
evitable four  or  five  additional  shillings  in  the  pound.  Then  look 
at  Roads  andCoomnahinshy,  at  Ballydarrig  and  theKillurlys. 
Look  at  Upper  Carham  and  Cannuge,  look  at  Ardcost,  at 
Fermoyle,  and  at  Ballard — in  fact,  look  all  along  from  Cara 
Lake  to  Foilhammerum,  and  from  Kilealan  to  Bollogha- 
sheen,  and  what  can  you  see  or  find  throughout  but  wretched* 


What  the  Irish  Nation  asks . 1 1 7 

ness,  and  wild  wastes,  and  desolation  all  round  (applause). 
Let  me  ask  why  and  wherefore  all  this  ? Iveragh  contains 
thousands  upon  thousands  of  acres  of  reclaimable  soil ; and 
haven’t  you  seen  year  after  year  the  life-blood  of  the  country 
flowing  off  in  a constant  stream  of  emigration  from  Iveragh, 
leaving  the  population  now  consisting  almost  of  poor  old 
decrepid  people,  broken-hearted  parents,  aud  helpless  chil- 
dren ? Why  and  wherefore  all  this  ? Haven’t  you  also  seen 
but  a few  months  ago,  as,  alas,  was  often  seen  before,  almost 
the  whole  of  Iveragh  on  the  very  brink  of  destruction, 
victims  of  hunger,  of  misery,  and  want?  Why  and  where- 
fore all  this  ? Ah  ! my  friends,  the  answer  to  these  doleful, 
dreadful  questions  is  easy  to  be  found.  It  is  on  everyone’s 
lips.  It  is  within  your  hearts.  Here  it  is  in  your  own 
simple,  truthful  words  : — ‘ If  we  improve  our  lands  the  rents 
would  be  raised  ’ (true  for  you,  sir).  This  is  the  cry  I have 
heard  yesterday  and  the  day  before,  and  have  been  hearing 
nearly  every  day  since  I was  born.  Is  it  a cry  of  justice 
that  has  pierced  the  heavens  ; may  it  pierce  the  hearts  of 
our  rulers  and  of  the  Empire.  At  the  eleventh  hour  let 
justice — full  justice — be  done  to  the  tenant  farmers  of  Ireland. 
Let  rack-rents  disappear ; let  the  fruits  of  honest  toil  and 
honest  labour  be  meted  out  and  secured  to  you  for  evermore. 
And  then,  and  not  till  then,  may  we  hope  to  see  peace  in 
the  Empire,  peace  and  plenty  in  the  land,  our  young  men 
and  young  women  staying  at  home  or  coming  back  to  Erin, 
the  wastes  of  Iveragh  growing  green,  Cahirciveen  flourish- 
ing, and  Ireland,  all  Ireland,  becoming  what  nature  intended, 
and,  please  God,  she  yet  will  be — 

“ Great,  glorious,  and  free, 

First  flower  of  the  earth,  and  first  gem  of  the  sea.** 

“Rev.  Father  Garvey,  C.C.,  Eyries,  proposed  the  first 
resolution,  as  follows  : — ‘That,  as  the  poverty  of  the  land  in 


1 1 8 The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

this  locality,  and  the  high  rents  charged  for  them  have  so 
reduced  the  tenantry  ol  the  district  that  a single  bad  harvest 
brings  them  to  the  verge  of  famine,  we  deem  it  our  duty  to 
declare  that  any  rent  higher  than  the  Government  valuation 
is  excessive,  and  should  not  be  exacted.’  They  were 
engaged  there  in  a holy  war,  a sanctified  crusade  ; and  they 
were  there  to  demand  from  their  lords  and  masters  their 
rights  (cheers).  And  if  they  were  united,  if  they  were  deter- 
mined, and  if  they  persevered  in  their  efforts,  those  efforts 
would  be  ultimately  crowned  with  complete  success  (cheers). 
He  had  some  knowledge  of  the  condition  of  the  tenant* 
farmers  in  the  parish  of  Eyries,  and  he  would  tell  those 
present  that  it  was  only  removed  by  a few  degrees  from 
simple  starvation.” 

Mr.  Healy,  who  spoke  at  this  meeting,  said  : 
“He  was  informed  by  the  Parish  Priest  of  Adrigole  that, 
out  of  2,000  people  in  his  parish,  every  man,  woman,  and 
child,  except  twenty,  were  on  the  relief  list  during  the  past 

season.  (A  Voice — That  is  true.) 

Some  of  Mr.  Hutchins’  tenants  were  fishermen,  and  any  of 
them  who  had  seines,  had  to  pay  him  extra ; or,  as  one  poor 
man  told  him,  he  taxed  them  for  nine  miles  of  the  ‘say.’ 
Well,  they  were  all  very  sorry  that  Mr.  Hutchins  was  shot  at. 
Lt  was  a very  bad  act,  but  he  (Mr.  Healy)  did  not  wonder  at 
it ; for  so  long  as  the  Government  allowed  these  outrages  to 
be  committed  by  the  landlords,  it  was  no  wonder  that  some 
slight  corresponding  attempt  at  rebellion  should  be  made  by 
the  tenants  (hear,  hear,  and  cheers).  That  locality  of  Bere- 
haven  was  so  poor  that  the  Poor-rates  were  the  highest  in 
Ireland.  In  a portion  of  the  town  they  were  5s.  6d.  in  the 
fi9  and  in  another  part  of  the  Union  3s.  2d.,  while  the 
County  Cess  was  2s.  Out  of  that  locality  the  landlords 
drew  a rental  of  ,£30,000,  and  not  one  of  them  ever  visited 


What  the  Irish  Nation  asks . 


119 

the  district,  and  they  did  not  spend  30,000  farthings  in  it. 
(hear,  hear.) 

“The  Rev.  T.  Lawler,  P.P.,  Valencia,  proposed  the 
second  resolution,  which  was  as  follows  : — ‘ Some  farmers, 
having  so  tempted  the  cupidity  of  landlords,  by  offering 
extravagant  rents  and  fines  for  other  people’s  farms,  owing 
to  their  insane  competition  for  land — be  it  resolved  that,  for 
the  purpose  of  self-defence,  we  pledge  ourselves  not  to  take 
a farm  from  which  another  has  been  unjustly  evicted ; nor 
to  purchase  cattle  or  goods  seized  for  non-payment  of  a rack 
rent/ 

“ Mr.  M.  J.  O’Driscoll  briefly  seconded  the  resolution. 

“ Rev.  Michael  O’Reilly,  P.P.,  Dromid,  proposed  the  third 
resolution  : — ‘ As  rack-rents  have  been  the  principal  cause 
of  bringing  on  us  in  this  remote  district  a famine,  from  which 
we  were  only  able  to  escape  by  the  charity  of  the  world, 
resolved — that  a local  committee  be  formed  to  receive 
evidence  of  the  people’s  grievances,  and  seek  redress  by 
persistent  appeals  to  a sound  public  opinion.’ 

Mr.  Blennerhasset,  M.P.,  spoke  also  : — 

“ The  object  of  wise  men  was  to  bring  about  reform,  not 
revolution,  and  to  promote  salutary  changes,  by  the  whole- 
some agency  of  public  opinion  and  the  legitimate  use  of  the 
weapons  of  political  power.  Many  minds  were  busy  with 
the  subject,  and  a great  variety  of  proposals  found  advocates 
and  adherents.  One  thing  he  especially  desired  was,  that 
when  the  question  came  to  be  dealt  with,  it  should  be  dis- 
posed of  thoroughly  and  completely.  A weak  and  inade- 
quate measure  would  be  a calamity  to  every  class  in  the 
community,  and,  most  of  all,  to  the  owners  of  land.  Courage 
and  resolution  were  wanted  to  go  once  for  all,  to  the  root  of 
the  matter.  It  was  more  than  thirty  years  since  Lord 
Devon’s  Commission  reported  that  it  had  been  shown  that 


I 20 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


the  master  evil  of  Ireland — poverty — proceeded  from  the 
fact  of  occupiers  of  land  withholding  the  investment  of 
labour  and  capital  from  the  ample  and  profitable  field  for  it 
which  lay  within  their  reach  on  the  farms  they  occupied 
and  that  this  hesitation  was  attributable  to  the  reasonable 
disinclination  to  invest  labour  or  capital  on  the  property  of 
others  without  a security  that  adequate  remuneration  shall 
be  derived  from  the  investment.  Had  these  words  been 
acted  upon,  and  that  security  been  afforded,  who  could 
doubt  that,  in  thirty  years,  the  face  of  the  country  would 
have  been  changed,  and  the  population  would  be  no  longer 
in  such  a miserable  condition  that  two  or  three  bad  harvests 
reduced  them,  as  they  well  knew,  to  the  depths  of  misery, 
and  even  to  the  verge  of  starvation.  He  would  quote  the 
testimony  of  an  intelligent  and  impartial  Englishman,  who 
had  lately  visited  Ireland  on  an  errand  of  mercy : — 1 Per- 
haps,’ said  Mr.  Tuke,  in  his  excellent  pamphlet,  ‘ apart  from 
the  wretched  condition  of  the  people  and  their  dwellings, 
the  fact  which  most  impresses  itself  upon  the  mind  of  the 
traveller  is,  that  nothing  is  made  the  best  of,  that  the 
resources  of  the  country  are  never  really  developed.’ 

“A  Cabinet  Minister,  in  a debate  of  last  Session,  quoted 
from  the  pamphlet  already  referred  to,  a sad  and  touching 
story.  The  writer  was  visiting  one  of  the  poor  cottier  tenants 
in  Donegal.  He  had  neither  cow  nor  calf,  nor  ewe  nor 
lamb,  nor  beast  that  treads  the  earth  ; but  he  had  a loom, 
and  was  sitting  upon  it.  He  had  neither  warp  nor  woof  in 
it,  but  he  was  mechanically  moving  the  frame  backwards 
and  forwards.  ‘ When  I read  that  story,’  said  the  minister, 
‘ I could  not  help  asking,  is  this  a real  story  or  an  allegory?’ 
Are  we  in  the  condition  of  this  poor  man  ? Are  we  moving 
backwards  and  forwards  the  framework  of  our  laws  for  Ire- 
land to  no  purpose  and  in  vain  ? Are  we  for  ever  working 
an  empty  loom,  and  driving  an  empty  shuttle  ? While  the 


What  the  Irish  Nation  asks . 


I 2 I 


present  system  of  land  laws  existed  in  Ireland,  and  the  great 
bulk  of  the  population  remained  without  the  stimulus  to 
property,  or  the  protection  of  a secure  tenure,  all  the  efforts 
of  Government  to  improve  the  condition  of  the  country 
would  be  idle  and  profitless,  as  the  labour  of  that  poor 
Donegal  cottier.” 

At  a Land  Meeting  at  Castletown,  Berehaven, 
in  the  County  Cork,  at  which  the  Rev.  Father 
Larkin,  P.P.,  presided,  he  said  : — 

“ People  of  Berehaven,  I must  commence  my  observa- 
tions by  congratulating  you  on  this  really  magnificent  gather- 
ing. Your  coming  here  to-day  in  such  numbers  is  a strong 
and  sufficient  proof  that  this  meeting  has  your  approval,  as 
it  has  mine  (hear,  hear).  Your  coming  here  in  such  numbers 
proves  that,  even  in  this  remote  locality,  you  are  at  present 
fully  alive  to  the  importance  of  the  cause  which  the  Land 
League  is  now  advocating  throughout  the  length  and  breadth 
of  the  country  (hear,  hear).  The  cause  that  the  Land  League 
advocates  is  your  own.  It  is  a cause  that  affects  each  and 
every  one  of  you.  What  is  that  cause,  and  what  is  the 
object  they  have  in  view  ? I will  tell  you.  It  is  to  put  an 
end  to  evictions  and  to  rack-renting  (hear,  hear) ; and  to  put 
an  end  altogether  to  landlord  oppression  (cheers).  Their 
object,  my  dear  friends,  is  that ; or,  in  other  words,  to  make 
the  Irish  tenant-farmer  independent,  and  to  put  him  in  such 
a position  that  he  will  be  enabled  to  live  comfortably — to 
support  his  family,  and  to  clothe  them  and  educate  them 
(cheers).  Their  object  was  to  give  the  Irish  tenant-farmer 
a strong  and  firm  grip  of  his  holding  (cheers),  to  root  him? 
as  they  say,  in  the  soil  of  his  fathers  (cheers) ; to  give  the 
farmer  security  of  tenure — to  impose  upon  him  a fair  and 
just  and  reasonable  rent,  and  to  insure  the  farmer  that  what- 


122 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 


ever  improvements  he  makes  in  his  little  holding  by  his  own 
toil  and  industry  shall  be  his  own  (cheers).  If  that  were 
the  case,  in  a short  time,  Ireland  would  be  prosperous,  she 
would  cease  to  be  the  periodical  beggar  she  had  been 
hitherto,  aud  the  children  of  Ireland  would  cease  to  crouch 
as  slaves  beneath  the  frown  of  the  man  in  power  (cheers). 
That  was  the  object  of  the  Land  League.  It  can  be  preached 
in  open  day,  and  no  one  need  be  afraid  to  profess  the  prin- 
ciples they  taught.  I ask  you,  is  it  at  all  unreasonable  to 
seek  to  put  the  tenant-farmers  in  the  position  I have  said 
(no,  no).  The  landlords  will  say,  4 Oh,  it  is  altogether  un- 
reasonable and  cannot  be  expected  but  I tell  you,  my 
friends,  and  I emphatically  say  it,  that  it  is  a thing  most 
reasonable,  and  a thing  that  ought  to  be,  and  I hope  will 
soon  be  (cheers),  and  if  that  thing  comes  to  pass,  as  I have 
said  already,  Ireland  will  be  prosperous,  and  Ireland’s  chil- 
dren will  enjoy  peace,  contentment,  and  the  blessings  of 
heaven  (cheers). 


MALACHY  O’SULLIVAN. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


WHAT  IRELAND  DOES  NOT  WANT. 


“ Commercial  restraints,  by  destroying  every  other  business,  caused 
the  excessive  competition  for  land,  which  has  been  the  proximate  cause 
of  our  worst  troubles.” — Letter  from  Mr.  Bagwell , of  Clonmel t to  the 
Editor  of  the  “ Freeman's  Journal .” 


TELAND  does  not  want  Communism 
or  Idealism,  or  any  other  “ ism  ” sub- 
versive of  law  and  order.  If  the 
English  people  would  consider  the  subject 
impartially,  they  would  soon  see  this.  And 
there  are  Irish  landlords  who  see  it,  and  know 
it,  and  have  the  courage  to  speak  the  truth. 

Mr.  Bagwell,  a well-known  Protestant  land- 
lord of  the  County  Tipperary,  has  written  a 
number  of  letters  to  the  Freeman  s Journal  on 
this  subject. 

I believe  too  much  weight  cannot  be  laid  on 
the  statement  which  he  has  made  in  one  of 
these  letters,  which  I have  printed  above.  But 
here  is  another  authority  on  the  same  subject, 
and  one  whose  word  will  have  more  weight. 
The  Earl  of  Dunraven  cannot  be  accused  of 


124  Che  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

Socialism,  Communism,  Parnellism,  or  any  spe- 
cial leaning  to  the  interests  of  Irish  tenants. 
He  wrote  long  and  frequent  letters  in  the 
American  papers  during  the  Famine.  These 
were  precisely  the  same  kind  as  the  landlord 
correspondence  which  has  been  going  on  in  the 
Times  for  the  last  few  months.  A candid 
admission  that  the  Irish  people  are  in  a state  of 
chronic  distress  from  no  fault  of  their  own — this 
comes  out  from  an  unconscious  honesty.  A 
bitter  abuse  of  them  because  they  do  not  do, 
what  has  been,  perhaps  on  the  very  same  page, 
unconsciously  admitted  that  they  cannot  do. 
Such  is  the  inevitable  result  of  looking  at  a 
most  serious  question,  not  from  that  point  of  view 
which  will  be  for  the  general  good,  but  from  a 
purely  selfish  one.  This  selfishness  is,  no 
doubt,  unconscious,  but  it  is,  nevertheless  mis- 
chievous. Few  English  gentlemen,  however, 
will  exhibit  it  as  freely  as  Sir  George  Bowyer1 
has  done.  Indeed  we  must  hope  no  other 
Englishman  would  be  guilty  of  such  a public 
exhibition  of  self-interest. 


i This  person,  who  seems  to  court  publicity  by  delivering  lectures  in 
the  papers  to  everyone,  from  the  Protestant  Dean  of  Westminster  to 
the  Irish  Priests,  has  actually  written  to  Mr.  Gladstone  to  beg  he  will 
put  a stop  to  Irirh  agitation,  because  his  “eminent  solicitors”  cannot 


What  Ireland  does  not  want . 


125 


Lord  Dunraven  not  being  one  of  the  mise- 
rable few  who  look  on  public  affairs  only  from 
that  point  of  view  which  concerns  themselves, 
is  capable  of  some  justice.  He  says  : — 

“Practically  speaking,  there  are  no  other  industries  in 
Ireland  to  which  the  people  can  turn  their  attention.  Such 
was  not  always  the  case.  Ireland  at  one  time  showed 
plenty  of  disposition  to  originate  and  develop  manufacture. 
England  crushed  every  effort  for  her  own  selfish  interests.” 

What  an  admission,  what  a calm  dispas- 
sionate statement,  what  an  indictment  against 
England,  from  the  pen  of  an  Anglo-Irish  land- 
lord ! If  a Land  League  agitator  said  what 
we  have  quoted  from  Lord  Dunraven  and  Mr. 
Bagwell,  he  would  be  denounced  as  setting  the 
people  against  the  English  Government  and 
people. 

We  quoted  in  a previous  chapter  a very 
strong  statement  from  the  Times , about  the 
desire  of  English  people  to  know  the  worst  of 
themselves  ; would  that  they  were  all  willing  to 
know  it  as  far  as  Ireland  is  concerned. 


find  tenants  for  his  farms  in  England,  on  account  of  the  Irish  Land 
movement.  What  miserable  exposures  are  made  when  men  exhibit 
the  true  cause  of  their  hatred  of  Ireland.  This  is  indeed  Communism, 
which  takes  all  for  itself,  and  would  leave  its  neighbour  destitute,  which 
places  personal  interest  as  the  one  great  object  in  life,  and  the  general 
good  last,  if  anywhere. 


126 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


But  Lord  Dunraven,  like  all  English  writers 
about  Ireland,  having  made  a candid,  and,  per- 
haps, involuntary  admission,  which  shows  that 
he  is  well  aware  of  one  of  the  great  causes  of 
Irish  discontent,  runs  off  into  the  usual  charges 
against  us  : — 

“Very  many  years  have  passed  since  any  restrictions  have 
been  placed  upon  the  same  industry,  and  the  country  ought 
long  ago  to  have  recovered  from  the  depression  caused  by 
bad  treatment,  and  might  have  done  so  if  it  had  been  at 
peace.  If,  when  the  people  got  absolute  fair  play,  they  had 
turned  their  face  to  the  future  and  set  vigorously  to  work, 
the  trade  would  have  been  started  again.  But  they  have 
never  been  let  alone.  They  have  constantly  been  agitated 
about  something  or  other.  They  have  been  encouraged  to 
look  back,  to  gloat  over  grievances  of  the  past,  instead  of 
addressing  themselves  to  active  exertion  in  the  present,  and 
have  been  taught  to  attribute  their  backwardness  in  agricul- 
ture to  their  lack  of  industries  and  their  poverty,  as  com- 
pared with  the  wealth  of  England,  to  every  conceivable 
cause  under  the  sun  except  the  unalterable  difficulties  con- 
nected with  the  natural  characteristics  of  the  country,  and 
to  difficulties  existing  in  their  own  selves,  and  which  they 
themselves  alone  can  remove.  Land  may  possibly  be  dete- 
riorating in  value.  If  so,  prices  will  find  their  level  through 
natural  causes.  Any  action  interfering  with  natural  causes 
must  have  evil  consequences  in  the  future.  It  is  impossible 
to  reduce  the  value  of  land  by  a strike  of  occupiers  against 
owners.” 

As  happily  there  are  few  English  gentlemen 
who  make  the  selling  or  letting  of  their  own 


What  Ireland  does  not  want . 127 

farms  their  sole  object  in  the  consideration  of 
public  affairs,  I turn  to  the  many  who  have 
some  public,  some  true  patriotism,  and  ask 
their  consideration  of  the  following  remarks. 
The  whole  subject  has  a most  important  bear- 
ing on  the  present  agitation  in  Ireland,  and 
on  the  charges  of  Communism  and  So- 
cialism. 

First — It  is  admitted  by  English  gentlemen 
that  Irish  industries  were  purposely  destroyed 
by  England.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  on  one 
point  Ireland  has  not  been  treated  as  an  in- 
tegral part  of  the  British  Empire.  What  would 
be  said  of  an  English  government  which  would 
deliberately  destroy  the  industries  of  Sheffield 
or  Manchester  ? The  idea  is  too  preposterous 
for  consideration,  but  let  it  be  remembered  that 
this  was  done  in  Ireland.  Irishmen  are  very 
bitterly  blamed  by  some  English  writers  for  not 
loving  England,  for  speaking  of  England  as  a 
step-mother,  for  not  making  themselves  one 
with  the  English  nation.  But  let  honourable 
Englishmen  remember  that  England  first,  yes, 
and  from  the  first,  treated  Ireland — well,  let  us 
not  use  harsh  words — let  us  say  that  she  did 
not  treat  Ireland  as  she  would  have  treated 
Yorkshire  and  Lancashire.  But  Lord  Dun- 
raven  says  Ireland  “ ought  long  ago  to  have 


128  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

recovered  from  the  depression  caused  by  such 
treatment.1 

No  doubt  Ireland  “ought’’  to  have  recovered. 
Let  one  remark  suffice.  In  places  in  England 
where,  from  particular  circumstances,  trade  has 
been  destroyed,  has  it  recovered  ? Do  you 
know  Spitalfields  ? I do.  Have  you  ever 
visited  the  poor  there  ? I have  : and  a more 
pitiful  sight  under  God’s  heaven,  could  hardly 
be  seen.  A dead  trade.  Vast  rooms  where 
the  rich  poplin  was  manufactured,  and  if  the 
toil  was  long  and  weary,  the  reward  was  good 
and  sure.  But,  then — for  I write  of  some  years 
ago — a ghastly  stillness.  I saw  a poor  man  there 
dying,  and  cursing  God  and  man  as  he  died. 
The  sight  will  haunt  me  to  my  dying  hour. 
He  lay  on  a bed  of  hard  sacking,  with  scarcely 
decent  covering,  at  the  end  of  a very  long  room, 
where  eight  or  ten  empty  dust-covered  looms 
snowed  what  had  been.  The  August  sun 
glared  in  from  hundreds  of  panes  of  glass — a 
necessity  of  the  trade,  when  there  was  trade. 
He  lay  at  the  head  of  a steep  and  narrow 
flight  of  stairs,  which  came  into  the  room,  so 


I In  noting  Lord  Dunraven’s  letters  so  specially,  I do  so  because  I 
believe  he  represents  ordinary  English  opinion  about  Ireland  ; and  it  is 
this  opinion  which  needs  information  and  explanation.  He  does  not 
indulge  in  extremes  of  invective,  or  manifest  contemptible  selfishness. 


What  Ireland  does  not  want. 


129 


that  he  might,  if  able,  at  the  last  hour,  call  a 
neighbours  child,  his  only  caretaker.  I knew 
then,  I knew  from  many  another  empty  room, 
what  a dead  trade  was.  Certainly  trade  “ought” 
to  have  been  revived  in  Ireland,  but  it  has  not 
been,  and  it  is  no  fault  of  the  Irish  people ; and 
it  ill  becomes  England  to  utter  one  word  of 
reproach  on  the  subject. 

But  Lord  D unraven  says,  “ the  people  get 
absolute  fair  play.”  When  ? How  ? Where  ? 
A people  depending  on  land  which  the  best 
authorities,  even  those  who  are  most  eager  to 
exact  the  last  penny  of  rent,  admit  cannot  sup- 
port them  in  decency  or  comfort,  how  were  they 
to  get  capital  to  restore  a ruined  trade  again  ? 
How  were  they  to  get  the  business  habits  so 
long  out  of  practice  ? How  were  they  to  get  the 
ear  of  merchants  and  traders  in  foreign  lands  ? 

Trade  does  not  spring  into  existence  like  a 
mushroom  forced  in  a night.  1 1 is  difficult  enough 
to  keep  it  when  secured  ; how  were  a people  to 
obtain  it  again  when  it  had  been  wrenched  from 
them  ? 

And  where  was  the  absolute  fair  play  ? What 
of  the  Irish  fisheries  P1  And  then  Lord  Dun- 


*We  shall  enter  into  this  subject  again  ; for  the  present  we  leave  it 
to  avoid  breaking  the  thread  of  our  argument. 


I 


1 30  The  Case  of  Ireland  staled. 

raven  takes  up  the  stock  argument  that  “ agita- 
tion” is  the  cause  of  all  the  evils  of  Ireland. 
Why  cannot  gentlemen  of  common  intelligence 
distinguish  between  cause  and  effect  where  Ire- 
land is  concerned  ? 

Irish  industries  have  been  destroyed  by  Eng- 
land, capital  has  gone,  land  is  admitted  to  be  the 
only  resource  for  commercial  enterprise,  and  land 
is  said  to  be  unable  to  support  the  people,  so 
that  emigration  is  the  only  remedy,  and  yet  the 
Irish  are  assured  it  is  all  their  own  fault  they 
are  not  prosperous.  Truly  the  force  of  incon- 
sistency could  go  no  further.  We  ask  to  have 
laws  made  which  will  secure  us  the  only  means 
of  industry  we  are  admitted  to  have.  We 
agitate  when  the  request  is  refused.  In  our 
fashion  of  agitating  there  may  not  be  all  the 
wisdom  and  deliberation  of  conscript  fathers. 
Then  we  are  told  we  are  keeping  capital  out  of 
Ireland  by  agitation.  What  capital  ? It  is  easy 
to  make  assertions.  Let  them  be  proved.  Let 
it  be  proved  that  any  real,  honest,  mercantile  or 
other  industry  has  b.een  offered  to  Ireland,  and 
that  she  has  refused  it.  If  the  last  sentence 
but  one  quoted  from  this  letter  has  any  meaning, 
it  implies  that  every  thing  should  be  let  alone, 
and  no  effort  ever  made  to  remedy  a national 
deficiency.  The  last  sentence  shows  the  hopeless 


What  Ireland  does  not  want. 


131 

ignorance  of  the  writer.  The  object  of  the 
“strike  of  occupiers  against  owners”  is  to  in- 
crease the  value  of  the  land. 

The  value  of  the  land  can  only  be  increased 
by  the  industry  of  the  cultivator.  The  cultivator 
will  not  give  his  labour  unless  he  is  allowed  a 
fair  return  for  it.  Land  is  the  only  industrial 
resource  which  has  been  left  by  England  to  the 
Irish  people;  and  most  assuredly  it  is  but  the 
honest  justice  that  the  people  should  have  every 
possible  protection  and  help  in  that  industry, 
that  England  should  not  crush  every  effort  for 
the  selfish  interests  of  a few  iand  owneis. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


WHY  IRISH  LAND  INDUSTRY  HAS  FAILED. 

“ I fear  the  scheme  of  striking  down  the  Established  Church,  and 
abandoning  the  theory  of  our  territorial  system,  is  so  broad,  so  good,  so 
complete,  that  Parliament  would  stand  against  it.  I can  conceive  a 
condition  of  things  in  Ireland  under  which  such  a great  change  might 
be  accomplished,  if  Ireland  were  united  in  demanding  it,  and  were 
menacing  Great  Britain  if  it  were  refused.” — John  Bright. 

HEN  a number  of  witnesses  give  con- 
flicting testimony,  the  only  way  to 
decide  on  evidence  is  to  test  the 
veracity  of  the  witnesses.  And  this  may  be 
done  in  two  ways — by  character,  and  by  fairly 
presumed  motive.  It  is,  unhappily,  true,  that 
persons  of  the  highest  character  are  sometimes 
so  influenced  by  sheer  crass  prejudice  as  to  be 
utterly  unreliable  as  witnesses.  “ I hate  preju- 
dice— I hate  the  French,”  is  as  wise  as  their 
views  on  some  public  affairs.  The  malign  in- 
fluence of  this  prejudice  of  centuries  is,  unhap- 
pily, the  cause  of  not  a little  of  the  difficulty 
experienced  in  discerning  the  state  of  Ireland. 
Those  who  are  so  sure  that  they  are  right — that 


Why  Irish  Land  Industry  has  failed.  133 

they  think  it  quite  impossible  they  can  be  wrong 
— are  quite  incapable  of  judging  any  question, 
and  yet  they  are  precisely  the  very  persons 
who  are  most  certain  of  their  own  individual 
infallibility.  Yet,  the  very  fact  that  there  are 
differences  of  opinion,  should  surely  induce  us 
to  think  that  there  must  be  some  ground  for 
such  differences. 

Hence,  it  is  the  part  of  true  wisdom,  when 
there  is  a conflict,  to  hear  both  sides  carefully, 
and  to  weioh  the  value  of  the  evidence. 

o 

Now,  it  is  worth  noticing,  that  men  who  have 
visited  Ireland,  like  Mr.  Childers  and  Sir  J. 
Campbell,  invariably  admit  that  there  is  need 
for  Land  Reform.  If  there  is  need  for  Land 
Reform,  it  is  clear  England  has  not  been 
just  to  Ireland,  and  yet  this  very  day  I have 
received  letters  from  English  gentlemen,  lite- 
rary men,  and  others,  written  in  a style  which, 
if  they  had  been  penned  by  women,  would  be 
called  hysterical.  And  those  wild  protestations 
declare  that  England  has  never  done  any  wrong 
to  Ireland,  and  that  all  that  is  wrong  in  Ireland 
is  our  own  fault.  When  such  a prejudice  exists, 
what  hope  is  there  that  truth  will  find  a place 
or  a hearing1  ? 

It  is  this  kind  of  ignorance  which  leads  to 
such  wild  talking  as  that  indulged  in  by  Sir 


134  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated, 

Harding  Gifford  at  Lancaster,  when  he  declared 
that  “just  now  in  Ireland  there  was  every  kind 
of  outrages/’  and  that  “justice to  Ireland  would 
include  justice  to  all  alike  his  context  plainly 
showing  that  he  meant  injustice  to  those  whose 
wrongs  had  led  them  to  do  acts  of  violence 
which  could  be  very  easily  averted  in  the  future 
by  doing  justice  to  the  poor. 

What  does  all  this  clamour  about  “ vindicating 
law  and  order”  mean  ? One  is  weary  of  the 
cry.  Is  it  not  the  demand  of  a class  of  men 
who  know  no  other  meaning  lor  it  except  the 
continual  enforcement  of  injustice  to  the  many, 
and  the  support  by  force  and  bloodshed  of  the 
injustice  perpetrated  by  the  few  on  the  million. 

Again,  whose  evidence  is  most  worthy  of 
consideration  ? that  of  persons  who  have 
actually  made  it  their  business  to  inquire  into 
the  actual  state  of  the  Irish  tenants,  or  that  of 
persons,  who,  when  they  denounce  the  Irish 
tenant  and  his  agitation,  in  the  very  act  of  de- 
nouncing, make  it  a political  question. 

I am  not  writing  for  politicians.  I am  writing 
for  thoughtful  men  and  women,  who  desire 
simply  to  know  facts,  and  to  form  their  opinion 
on  facts.  And  to  such  I would  earnestly  say  : 
doubt  all  statements  in  which  you  find  that 
political  (party)  motives  are  largely  introduced. 


Why  Irish  Land  Industry  has  failed.  135 

Such  witnesses  are  altogether  unreliable.  When 
men  like  Sir  Harding  Gifford  bring  forward 
and  enlarge  on  the  state  of  Ireland  as  a subject* 
of  reproach  or  taunt  to  their  political  opponents  ; 
when  the  Conservative  throws  the  “fearful”  state 
of  Ireland  in  the  face  of  the  Liberal,  there  is  an 
end  of  fair  discussion.  Let  men  who  wish  for 
truth  look  elsewhere.  If  Ireland  was  equally 
in  the  minds  of  Englishmen  as  much  a part  of 
the  empire  as  Yorkshire,  such  speeches  would 
never  be  heard.  Again,  let  it  be  said  that  we 
are  very  bitterly  blamed  for  not  having  a very 
cordial  feeling  of  union  with  England,  but  how 
does  England  act  towards  us?  Has  she  not 
shown  the  example  first  of  treating  Irish  affairs 
as  apart  from  the  interests  of  the  empire  ? 

But  let  me  offer  some  unimpeachable  and  inde- 
pendent evidence  as  to  the  normal  condition  of 
the  Irish  people  before  entering  more  fully  on 
this  subject  ? 

And,  first,  I will  cite  the  evidence  of  His 
Royal  Highness  the  Duke  of  Edinburgh.  At 
the  Annual  Dinner  of  the  Royal  Geographical 
Society,  held  in  London,  on  June  2nd,  1880, 
he  said,  at  the  conclusion  of  some  remarks  on 
the  Famine  in  Ireland,  the  result,  be  it  remem- 
bered, of  personal  observation  : — 

“ It  is  to  be  hoped,  too,  that  other  things  may  be  done, 


136  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated, 

such  as  the  undertaking  of  great  works,  and  the  encourage- 
ment of  the  Coast  Fisheries  of  Ireland.  I feel  sure  that 
the  organizing  of  the  fisheries  on  the  coast,  which  at  present 
are  very  much  neglected,  would  give  the  population  there  a 
more  secure  means  of  existence.  The  land  is  really  inca- 
pable of  supporting  the  population  from  natural  resources  ; 
and  I feel  certain  that,  without  the  assistance  of  the  fisheries, 
the  same  distress  which  has  occurred  will  occur  again. 

“ Excuse  me  for  having  alluded  to  this  subject.  It  was 
not  included  in  the  programme  for  this  evening,  but  as  you 
have  so  kindly  drunk  my  health,  and  the  fact  of  my  having 
been  recently  in  Ireland  has  been  so  kindly  alluded  to,  I 
have  taken  the  liberty  of  placing  before  you  the  facts  as  I 
have  found  them.”  (Loud  cheers.) 

A writer  in  the  Graphic , not  long  after, 
said  : — 

“ But  for  the  unworthy  jealousy  of  English  manufacturers, 
Ireland  might,  nearly  a couple  of  centuries  ago,  have 
become  an  important  industrial  region.” 

The  jealousy  of  English  manufacturers  cer- 
tainly had  nothing  to  do  with  the  state  of 
things  to  which  His  Royal  Highness  called 
attention  and  deplored,  but  Irish  landlords  had 
a great  deal  to  do  with  it,  as  we  shall  show 
presently. 

We  give  next  a report  of  the  normal  state  of 
the  people  of  St.  Johnstown,  endorsed  by  the 
Marquis  of  Hamilton,  and  given  in  a Report  of 
the  Duchess  of  Marlborough’s  Relief  Com- 
mittee, from  1880. 


Why  Irish  Land  Industry  has  failed,  137 

The  Rev.  M.  Martin,  P.P.,  says:  “You 

may  rest  assured  that  those  Catholics,  whose 
normal  state  at  best  is  miserable,  and  this  year 
is  considerably  aggravated  by  the  want  of  fuel, 
potatoes,  crecr  and  employment,  are  proper 
objects  for  your  charitable  consideration.’’  A 
letter  strongly  endorsing  this  statement,  from 
the  Marquis  of  Hamilton,  was  read. 

The  following  are  extracts  from  the  reports 
of  Dr.  Sigerson,  Mr.  Fox,  and  others,  to  the 
Mansion  House  Relief  Committee  in  June  and 
July,  1880,  and  they  show  the  state  of  the 
country  apart  from  the  effects  of  the  famine : — 

“ Neither  Camus  nor  Carraroe  are  islands  ; they  are  por- 
tions of  the  mainland.  Yet,  such  is  the  absence  of  roads 
here,  they  are  only  accessible  by  sea  from  Rosmuck.  The 
distance  by  water  to  Carraroe  South  cannot  be  less  than 
six  or  seven  miles,  through  difficult  channels.  Midway  we 
have  to  leave  the  boat  and  travel  over  an  isthmus  (at  low 
tide)  of  stones,  slippery  with  fuci,  across  which  it  was 
necessary  for  the  men  to  drag  the  boat.  Their  being  no 
pier,  our  course  on  landing  lay  again  over  a broad  shore  of 
shaggy  rocks.  If  we  refer  particularly  to  such  points  as 
these,  it  is  in  order  that  you  may  realise  the  difficulties  pre- 
sented to  the  conveyance  of  the  sick  to  hospital  (some 
thirty  miles  away  !).  Consider  also  that  these  are  obstacles 
to  the  visits  of  medical  officer  and  clergymen.  In  rains 
and  storms  their  course  must  be  painful  and  dangerous; 
whilst  in  winter,  if  overtaken  by  darkness  or  tossed  by  tem- 
pests, there  is  imminent  risk  of  life.  Hence  we  would  urge  that, 
in  all  such  districts,  the  channels  should  be  improved  where 


138  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

necessary,  and  small  boat-piers  built,  where  so  much  required. 

“ Carroroe  South  is  almost  a repetition  of  Camus,  with 
its  grey  granite  walls  ; but  the  cabins  here  are  a shade 
better,  and  some  employment  has  been  furnished  by  the 
making  of  a small  road,  which  cannot  be  completed  (we 
are  told)  for  want  of  funds.  Carraroe  North,  however,  is 
worse  than  even  Camus.  In  some  parts  the  laborious 
peasants  have  succeeded  in  forming  fields  and  raising 
scanty  crops,  but  over  a wide  range  the  eye  beholds 
nothing  save  a dreary  expanse  of  brown  bog,  broken  at 
intervals  by  white  reefs  of  granite  rock.  There  have  been 
nineteen  cases  of  fever  reported  to  the  relieving  officer  in 
the  Carraroes,  Clynagh,  and  Kuranbeg  since  the  1st  of 
April,  but  more  have  confessedly  existed.  It  is  our  duty 
to  add  that  (as  in  the  instance  of  the  Ballintadder  fever 
families)  notices  of  eviction  had  been  obtained  against  the 
peasants  of  the  Carraroes.  Obviously,  there  could  be  no 
more  efficacious  way  of  disseminating  infectious  disease 
over  the  country  than  by  compelling  persons  sick  in  fever, 
or  just  convalescent,  to  quit  their  isolated  homes  and  wander 
about,  seeking  shelter  from  others,  probably  at  a distance 
and  not  yet  smitten.  Whilst  the  disease  is  thus  being 
spread  the  mortality  must  be  increased. 

“Hence  it  ought  to  be  the  first  policy  of  the  State  in 
such  cases  to  suspend  the  power  of  eviction  until  the  risk 
of  infection  shall  have  disappeared.  The  conditions  of 
such  a suspension  is  not  for  us  to  suggest,  but,  as  regards 
the  vital  importance  of  such  a measure,  no  doubt  can  be 
possible. 

“ Rosmuck. — Remote,  in  one  of  the  wildest  parts  of 
Connemara,  lies  the  district  of  Rosmuck,  composed  of 
mountains,  moors,  granite  rocks,  long  winding  creeks,  intri- 
cate straits,  and  many  islands,  occasionally  inaccessible. 
Green  patches  of  ripening  crops,  fenced  by  high  walls  of 


Why  Irish  Land  Industry  has  failed . 139 


loose  stones,  and  interspersed  by  erratic  boulders  and 
pyramids  of  great  grey  pebbles,  gathered  from  the  field, 
attest  the  incessant  industry  of  the  peasant,  striving  against 
innumerable  obstacles.  Large  breadths  of  this  district  are 
utterly  without  roads,  or  even  lanes.  Seawrack  for  manure, 
turf  for  fuel,  crops  for  market — all  must  be  carried  on  the 
backs  of  men  or  horses  to  or  from  the  shore  or  distant 
highway  when  necessary.  Then,  with  a thrust  of  the  hand, 
the  stones  fall  from  the  loosely-built  walls,  and  a gap  is 
made  for  the  passage  of  the  burthen.  To  visit  fever- 
stricken  Camus,  a portion  of  this  district,  we  had  to  take  a 
boat,  and,  after  a long  row  up  a sinuous  creek,  to  traverse  a 
slippery  shore  of  rocks,  covered  with  shaggy  seawrack.  Ourlway 
next  lay  over  pathless  bogs,  fields,  and  through  new-made 
gaps,  to  cabins  whose  reedy  roofs  rose  but  little  above  the 
grey  walls  that  divided  the  fields.  Some  of  the  doors  were 
only  breast-high,  and  the  interior  was  often  correspondingly 
small.  Smoke  often  filled  the  inside,  for  there  was  no  lime 
with  which  to  build  a chimney,  though  in  some  cases  an 
ingenious  screen  of  interwoven  reeds  supplied  its  place.  In 
one  almost  empty  cabin  we  found  a poor  mother,  Mary 

J , lying  on  the  ground,  in  fever,  with  none  to  tend  her 

but  a son.  Her  anxiety  was  all  about  him,  lest  he  should 
catch  the  disease.  The  son  stated  that  the  relieving  officer 
had  first  refused  relief,  saying  he  was  able  to  support  her 
(yet  they  are  very  poor) ; then  informed  him  nothing  could 
be  given  until  he  should  see  the  medical  officer,  who  lives 
on  an  island  in  the  centre  of  his  immense  district.  After  her 
illness  had  lasted  three  weeks  twopence  worth  of  bread  and 
some  wine  had  been  obtained.  . . . 

“ Meanwhile  there  is  unlimited  scope  for  road-making  in 
Mayo,  for  nowhere  else,  perhaps,  are  the  public  highways 
so  dangerous  to  life  and  limb.  Yet  at  best  even  these  can 
scarcely  be  described  as  works  of  a reproductive  character 


140  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

or  of  permanent  utility.  Indeed,  many  of  the  baronial 
works  which  I saw  in  operation  in  the  shape  of  bog  road 
fences  would  scarcely  withstand  a sharp  rainstorm,  which 
would  speedily  reduce  them  to  their  original  element  of  peat 
and  mud.  On  the  other  hand,  what  might  be  done  in  the 
way  of  reclaiming  waste  lands  is  often  visible  to  the  eye  as 
well  as  to  the  imagination.  In  many  districts  through  which 
I travelled  I saw  patches  of  meadow  and  smiling  corn- 
fields, where  only  a few  years  ago  there  was  nothing  but 
savage  bog  and  moorland.  The  great  evil  of  the  times  in 
Mayo  is  not  the  question  of  rent,  but  rather  the  circum- 
stance that  the  holdings  of  the  small  farmers  are  deficient  in 
quantity  as  well  as  quality.  This  it  is  that  necessitates  the 
annual  flight  to  England,  an  evil  in  itself,  to  enable  them  to 
eke  out  even  a miserable  existence  on  their  return.  If  it 
could  be  remedied  without  injury  to  the  vested  interests  of 
others,  you  might  have  a prosperous  and  contented  pea- 
santry, instead  of  one  whose  present  condition  is  a scandal 
to  the  empire.” 

The  special  correspondent  of  the  Daily  Tele - 
graph 9 July,  1880,  writes  thus  of  Donegal:  — 

“ All  accounts  agree  that  the  soil  is  capable  of  feeding  its 
inhabitants  for  no  more  than  three  months  in  the  year. 
How,  then,  as  to  the  wherewithal  for  the  remaining  nine  ? 
It  is  provided,  in  the  first  place,  by  the  labour  of  the  male 
population  in  Scotland  and  England.  Every  spring,  as  soon 
as  their  farms  are  * cropped,’  the  men  tie  up  a little  bundle, 
swing  it  on  the  end  of  a stick,  and  take  the  road  to  Derry  5 
whence  for  a few  shillings  they  cross  to  Glasgow,  returning 
after  the  Scotch  harvest  with  six,  eight,  or  ten  pounds  of 
money  saved  for  winter  use.  Meanwhile  the  younger  people 
of  both  sexes  hire  themselves  out  in  the  eastern  districts,  or 


Why  Irish  Land  Industry  has  failed . 14 1 

work  on  the  shore  gathering  kelp,  while  the  women  who 
stop  at  home  add  a little  to  the  common  stock  by  hand- 
knitting. Thus,  in  ordinary  years,  the  poor  people  contrive 
to  make  both  ends  meet.  It  follows  that  the  failure  of  a 
season’s  crop  is  a matter  of  comparatively  small  importance, 
and  I am  assured  that  had  nothing  but  potatoes  and  oats  been 
given  out  last  year,  we  should  not  now  be  hearing  much  of 
distress  in  western  Donegal.  Unhappily,  everything  failed  ; 
the  men  went  away  to  Scotland  as  usual,  but  could  obtain 
no  employment,  and  in  numerous  cases  had  to  be  helped 
home  again.  Such  cattle  and  sheep  as  the  country  could 
send  to  market  were  sold  at  literally  an  ‘ alarming  sacrifice  f 
while  the  agents  who  once  gave  three  shillings  and  sixpence 
for  a hundred  weight  of  kelp,  made  a favour  of  purchasing 
the  article  at  less  than  a third  of  the  price.  No  people 
could  stand  an  accumulation  of  troubles  like  this,  and  hence 
the  present  very  serious  condition  of  the  Donegal  sea-board. 
It  is  computed  that  the  income  of  the  district  around 
Gweedore  fell  short  of  the  average  last  year  by  ^16,000, 
while  a memorial  just  presented  to  the  Lord  Lieutenant 
from  the  adjacent  parishes  of  Templecrone  and  Lettermaca- 
ward  states  that  the  falling  off  there  amounted  to  no  less 
than  ^22,000.  No  wonder  that  from  all  the  region  round 
about  we  are  now  hearing  ‘ an  exceeding  great  and  bitter 
cry.’  I sometimes  see  emigration  recommended  as  preven- 
tive of  such  a state  of  things  in  future,  but  before  a reason- 
able mind  can  accept  this  it  must  be  distinctly  understood 
that  the  resources  of  the  country  are  to  remain  undeveloped. 
Were  western  Donegal  exploited  to  the  utmost,  it  would 
sustain  not  only  the  present  population,  but  ten  times  their 
number.  Unquestionably,  if  no  more  is  to  be  done  than 
has  been  accomplished  hitherto,  emigration  is  the  only  cure. 
But  if  man’s  great  mission  to  replenish  the  earth  and  subdue 
it  embraces  this  district,  emigration  means  a wicked  waste 


142  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

of  the  life-blood  of  the  country.  Here  are  thousands  upon 
thousands  of  acres  lying  idle,  waiting  now,  as  they  have 
waited  from  the  beginning,  for  some  one  to  do  the  work 
achieved  in  Connemara  by  Mr.  Mitchell  Henry. 

“ Advocates  of  change  in  the  Irish  land  system  do  not 
forget  to  urge  the  existing  condition  of  the  drainage  of  the 
country  as  a proof  that  the  present  owners  have  failed  to  do 
what  was  expected  of  them,  and  are  still  incapable  of  plac- 
ing the  occupiers  in  a position  to  make  the  best  of  the  land. 
It  is  true  that  vast  exertions  were  made  at  the  period  of  the 
famine  ; and  great  improvements  were  then  set  on  foot,  with 
a progiess  in  some  degree  maintained  in  later  years.  Under 
loans  from  the  Board  of  Public  Works,  from  1847  to  1878, 
the  quantity  of  land  underdrained  was  260,665  acres;  and 
of  this  2,472  acres  were  drained  in  1877,  at  a cost  of 
£, 6 7s.  3d.  per  acre;  2,617  acres  the  year  before,  and  so 
on  : about  2,100  to  2,600  acres  annually  for  a series  of  years 
back.  In  the  year  1878  loans  amounting  to  ^158,300 
were  advanced  for  drainage,  farm  buildings,  labourers’  dwell- 
ings, fencing,  planting,  &c.  Under  the  Land  Improvement 
Acts,  in  31  years,  from  1847  to  1878,  the  loans  amounted  to 
^'2,844,700,  or  an  average  of  ^91,764  a year.  The  works 
were  executed  in  all  the  counties  of  Ireland ; the  largest 
sums  being  expended  in  Antrim,  Donegal,  Tyrone,  Galway, 
Mayo,  Roscommon,  Meath,  Queen’s  County,  Limerick, 
Tipperary,  Kerry,  and  Cork.  Yet  all  this  is  a fleabite  in 
comparison  with  the  work  which  ought  to  have  been  done. 
For  here  is  an  island,  complaining  that  its  arable  husbandry 
is  depressed  by  the  dampness  of  the  climate,  yet  leaving 
millions  of  acres  of  its  land  still  in  need  of  drainage.  I 
have  seen  a statement  of  a high  authority  that  at  least 
6,000,000  acres  in  Ireland  are  open  to  this  fundamental 
improvement ; but,  whether  the  acreage  be  so  vast  as  this  or 
not,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  drying  of  anything  like 


Why  Irish  Land  Industry  has  failed.  143 

such  a proportion  as  a fourth  or  a fifth  of  the  total  superficies 
of  20,820,000  acres  would  go  far  towards  clearing  away  the 
excess  of  vapour  in  the  atmosphere  which  too  greatly 
attempers  the  summer  heat  and  clouds  the  direct  rays  of 
the  sun.  It  is  reckoned  that  the  work  could  be  executed 
for  £5  per  acre,  say,  repayable  by  a rent-charge  of  5s.  per 
acre.  Upon  hundreds  of  thousands  of  acres  of  bog  soil 
and  of  wet,  cold  clay,  the  increased  value  of  the  land  might 
soon  amount  to  15s.  or  even  £ 1 per  acre.  Supposing  that 
4,000,000  acres  were  improved  in  letting  value  to  the  extent 
of  10s.  a year,  we  should  have  a profit  of  ^2,000,000  a 
year ; and  at  the  higher  estimate  I have  quoted  the  gain 
would  be  a million  more.  The  figures  may  be  too  broad ; 
but  at  least  the  mere  fact  that  a sound,  practical  authority 
could  make  such  a guess  indicates  the  immensity  of  the 
default  still  remaining  after  all  these  years  to  be  remedied 
in  the  draining  of  Ireland. 

“ There  is  no  practical  difficulty  in  the  way.  Labour  and 
stones,  or  labour  and  tiles,  are  the  instruments  in  the  case  ; 
and  labour,  the  greatest  item,  is  ready  and  waiting  for 
employment  on  the  largest  scale  of  operations  which  any 
body  of  employers,  either  landlords,  agents,  engineers,  or 
public  companies,*  can  set  afloat.  Besides,  this  is  work 
which  the  small  tenantry  and  labourers,  under  good,  well- 
organised  supervision,  can  execute.  If  questions  are  put 
why  the  work  has  not  been  accomplished  long  ago,  the 
answers  are  multiform,  but  all  reflecting  severely  upon  the 
conditions  under  which  very  much  of  the  soil  of  the  kingdom 
is  held  by  persons  whose  interest  or  whose  ability  does  not 
lead  them  to  make  such  remunerative  investment  in  their 
estates. 

“ In  another  description  of  permanent  improvement — 
namely,  planting  —the  proprietors  again  are  to  be  blamed. 
Professor  Baldwin  says  that,  4 next  to  drainage,  the  necessity 


•J44 


The  Case  of  Ireland  slated. 


for  which  all  persons  admit,  there  is  nothing  which  would 
pay,  in  many  parts  of  Ireland,  so  well  as  planting.  We 
have  at  least  a million  acres,  now  waste  or  nearly  so,  in 
which  trees  planted  now  would  in  the  course  of  20  years  be 
worth  jQ 20  an  acre,  and  thus  pay  a higher  rent  for  the  use 
of  the  land  than  could  be  made  of  it  in  any  other  way. 
Why  do  so  few  landowners  plant  for  future  profit  as  well  as 
for  present  shelter,  improving  the  value  of  elevated  sheep 
pastures,  and  by  plantations  protecting  against  winds  and 
cold  the  early  and  late  depastured  cattle  on  the  lowlands  ? 
The  soil  and  climate  are  favourable,  for  woods  and  forests 
flourished  in  primeval  Erin  and  in  the  middle  and  later 
ages  : but  limited  and  encumbered  proprietors  lack  both  the 
means  and  the  will  to  beautify  the  island  with  slow-returning 
investments  in  timber. 

“ The  arterial  drainages  of  Ireland  have  acquired  a name, 
including  the  noted  works  on  the  Shannon  and  other  of  the 
noble  waterways  of  the  island.  Under  the  Arterial  Drainage 
Acts  were  expended  ^2,390,600,  of  which  ^£2, 249,500 
were  advanced  as  Government  loans.  But  the  costly  system 
of  executing  river  improvements  by  the  Board  of  Works 
came  to  an  end  in  1861.  Many  important  drainages  have 
been  carried  on  since  that  date  under  the  powers  of  the 
Drainage  Act  of  1863.  And  any  civil  engineer  in  Ireland 
will  tell  you  that,  when  you  have  excepted  the  few  under- 
takings projected  or  warmly  espoused  by  certain  enterpris- 
ing and  large-minded  noblemen  and  other  owners,  the  bulk 
of  the  beneficial  works  of  this  nature  which  have  been  com- 
pleted have  been  originated  and  carried  through  mainly  by 
the  teaching  and  the  zeal  of  leading  men  in  the  profession, 
whose  knowledge  and  faith  enabled  them  to  see  what 
advantage  would  accrue  and  to  persuade  majorities  of  the 
persons  interested  into  acquiescence  with  well-designed 
plans  of  improvement.  The  greatest  obstacle  to  progress 


Why  Irish  La?id  Industry  has  failed.  145 


lay  in  the  complicated  nature  of  the  landed  proprietorship. 
By  the  Act  of  1863,  a majority  in  a proposed  district  for  an 
arterial  drainage  work  could  bind  the  minority — that  is  to 
say,  an  undertaking  required  the  assent  of  the  owners  of 
land  whose  valuation  amounted  to  two  thirds  that  of  the 
whole  district.  But  this  course  so  frequently  nullified  initial 
proceedings  in  cases  where  the  support  of  the  most  impor- 
tant owners  had  been  secured  that  the  Act  was  amended  in 
1878  so  as  to  make  necessary  the  assent  of  proprietors  up 
to  only  half  the  value.  However,  the  same  Act  provided 
that  the  dissent  in  writing  of  proprietors  of  one-third  can 
bar  proceedings.  The  consequence  is  that,  when  argument 
has  convinced  a majority  of  the  proprietors  who  may  be 
resident  or  accessible,  when  compromises  and  arrangements 
have  settled  ignorant  or  factious  opposition,  and  a number 
of  absentees  have  been  left  out  of  account  as  neutrals,  a 
most  important  and  valuable  work  can  be  stopped  by  a 
minority,  composed  of  many  sections,  some  disbelieving  in 
the  promise  of  benefit,  some  considering  the  proposal  mis- 
chievous, but  most  part  of  them  unwilling  or  unable  to 
saddle  their  estates  with  any  further  expenses,  no  matter 
how  the  beneficial  outlay  might  ultimately  be.  The  great  pro- 
hibiting causes  operating  against  improvements  have  been  the 
sham  nature  of  ownership,  the  life  interests,  the  estates  held 
in  trust,  and  other  conditions  which  interfere  with  the  ability 
or  willingness  of  the  nominal  owners  to  do  the  best  for  the 
productiveness  of  their  land.  I am  told,  moreover,  that 
one  unfortunate  effect  of  the  Land  Act  of  1870  has  been  to 
deter  landlords  from  proceeding  with  arterial  drainage  works 
for  the  advantage  of  estates  on  which  they  feel  less  chance 
of  reaping  profit  in  future  increase  of  rent.” 

Exactly.  This  is  the  key-note  to  the  whole  dis- 
turbance cry.  Landlords  are  afraid  they  will 

K 


14  <5  The  Case  of  Ireland  staled . 

get  less  rent,  and  to  satisfy  this  miserable  greed 
on  the  part  of  men  who  possess  tens  of  thou- 
sands, the  vast  multitude  of  the  Irish  people 
are  to  remain  in  a state  of  semi-starvation,  or  to 
emigrate  from  their  homes  ; and  are  to  be  con- 
tinuously taunted  with  every  vice,  while  their 
patience  shows  that  they  possess  no  ordinary 
degree  of  virtue. 

Because  they  ask  for  legal  measures  which 
shall  prevent  this  miserable  state  of  things, 
described,  not  by  Irish  agitators,  but  by  grave 
English  writers,  they  are  taunted  with  com- 
munism and  disaffection. 

Some  future  Carlyle  will,  perhaps,  write  about 
all  this,  and  will  marvel  that  under  such  a state 
of  things  there  was  so  much  “ rose  water/’  and 
so  little  bloodshed. 

Future  generations  will  do  justice  to  the 
Irish  people,  if  a present  generation  refuses 
to  do  so. 

The  Times  wrote  the  above  account  a few 
months  a^o.  It  commences  a leader  in  Novem- 
ber , thus  : — 

“ It  has  been  truly  said  that  nothing  is  certain  about 
Ireland,  except  that  whatever  statement  be  made  about  it 
is  sure  to  be  disputed.  Many  are  ready  to  tell  us  all  the 
facts  we  seek,  but  they  contradict  one  another.  The  English 
travellers  who  have  been  wandering  in  the  south  and  west 


Why  Irish  Land  Industry  has  failed . 147 

during  the  autumn  come  back  to  us  with  a wonderful  diver- 
sity of  views.  This  is  very  perplexing  for  the  patient  men 
who  want  to  know  what  is  the  truth  concerning  the  condi- 
tion of  the  Irish  people  before  considering  what  is  to  be 
done  for  them.  They  are  distracted  by  the  different  tales 
that  reach  them.” 

But  does  not  the  Times  believe  itself?  Are 
all  its  statements  given  about  a matter  of  doubt, 
or  are  they  facts  ? They  were  given  as  facts  a 
few  months  since,  and  they  can  scarcely  have 
ceased  to  be  facts  since  then.  Let  us  appeal 
from  Philip  incapable  of  judging  from  libations 
of  prejudice,  to  Philip  when  his  head  is  free 
from  the  fumes  of  political  or  religious  iutoxica- 
tion,  and  truth  will  be  easily  ascertained. 

English  gentlemen  pay  themselves  a bad 
compliment  when  they  express  such  difficulty 
about  understanding  the  state  of  Ireland.  They 
have  facts  before  them.  Let  them  judge  from 
facts,  and  the  matter  is  accomplished. 


CHAPTER  X. 


HOW  IRISH  LAND  INDUSTRY  HAS  BEEN  CRIPPLED. 

“The  importance  and  absolute  necessity  of  securing  to  the  occupying 
tenant  in  Ireland  some  distinct  mode  of  remuneration  for  the  judicious 
permanent  improvements  that  he  may  effect  upon  his  farm  is  sustained 
by  a greater  weight  of  concurrent  evidence  than  any  other  subject  which 
has  been  brought  under  the  investigation  of  the  Commissioners.’  ‘ The 
want  of  some  measure  of  remuneration  for  tenants’  improvements  has 
been  variously  stated  as  productive,  directly  cr  indirectly,  of  most  of  the 
social  evils  of  the  country.’  ’” — -Devon  Covimission. 

HAVE  purposely  refrained  from  quot- 
ing Mr.  Tubes’  work  in  the  preceed- 
ing  pages,  because  my  object  was 
rather  to  show  from  authorities,  which  are  known 
to  be  altogether  above  suspicion,  the  unhappy 
state  of  the  Irish  people  apart  from  their  con- 
dition in  the  Famine.  What  needs  to  be  already 
understood  is,  that  though  the  Famine  was  the 
immediate  occasion  of  fearful  distress,  yet,  even 
so  great  a failure  of  the  one  crop  on  which  Ire- 
land depends  for  support,  ought  not  to  have 
resulted  in  such  a calamity.  If  the  condition  of 
the  people  was  not  so  miserable  as  it  is,  the 
failure  of  one  crop  could  not  have  caused  such 
overwhelming  misery  and  distress.  It  is  then, 
it  should  be,  the  object  of  government  to 


T.  M.  HEALY. 


How  Irish  Land  l ndustry  has  been  crippled.  1 49 

ascertain  what  is  the  cause  of  the  permanent 
state  of  poverty  and  trade  depression  in  Ireland, 
and  havine  ascertained  the  cause,  to  remove  or 
find  a remedy.  English  gentlemen  pay  them- 
selves a very  poor  compliment  when  they  write 
and  speak  as  if  it  were  impossible  to  under- 
stand Ireland.  It  is  only  impossible  to  those 
who  do  not  choose  to  take  facts  as  they  are. 

For  example,  there  was  very  severe  distress, 
little  short  of  actual  famine,  in  parts  of  Cork, 
and  in  nearly  the  whole  of  Kerry.  Here  is  an 
extract  from  a letter  of  the  bishop,  which  gives 
evidence  of  the  utter  indifference  of  Kerry 
landlords. 

The  Most  Rev.  Dr.  M‘Carthy,  Bishop  of 
Kerry,  says,  writing  to  a Liverpool  priest  : — 

“ The  Palace,  Killarney. 

“ My  Dear  Father  O’Kane — In  the  name  of  my  poor 
people,  I thank  the  gentlemen  who  laboured  so  earnestly  in 
getting  up  the  Irish  Relief  concert  in  your  parish.  Your 
offering  is  by  no  means  late,  for  unfortunately  the  distress  is 
at  its  height  in  this  month.  We  have  been  deluded  with 
relief  works  which  were  never  opened.  The  money  applied 
for  as  loans  will  never  leave  the  Treasury  for  the  greater 
part.  In  the  same  way  baronial  sessions  have  been  held  in 
various  districts,  but  the  roads  approved  of  will  never  be 
made.  The  whole  scheme  is  a mockery.  Take  this  Kil- 
larney Union  as  an  example.  Except  Lord  Kenmare,  I 
know  no  other  landlord  who  has  expended  this  year  £*500 
above  the  usual  labour  account.  The  Town  Commissioners 


7 he  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


150 

applied  for  loans,  but  they  have  given  so  far  no  employment. 
The  Guardians  have  not  expended  a shilling  for  drainage 
or  other  necessary  sanitary  works.  Were  it  not  for  thv 
liberal  donations  of  our  American  brethren,  the  famine  of 
’47  would  have  again  revisited  many  lonely  and  beautiful 
glens  in  your  native  Kerry.  God  bless  those  who  have 
helped  us. 

“ I remain  your  much  obliged  and  faithful  servant, 

D.  M‘Carthy.” 

It  is  a miserable  thing  to  say,  but  it  is  true, 
that  Irish  landlords,  with  rare  exceptions,  took 
advantage  of  the  famine  to  advance  what  they 
believed  to  be  their  own  interests,  instead  of 
trying  to  help  their  unhappy  tenantry.  This  I 
shall  prove. 

The  Land  Commission  has  been  sitting:  in 
this  district  lately,  and  amongst  those  who  were 
examined  we  find  the  Rev.  Mr.  M‘ Mahon, 
P.P.  His  parish  is  in  Cork,  but  it  belongs  to 
the  diocese  of  Kerry.  The  report  of  his  exami- 
nation, and  that  of  Mr.  Barry,  a very  exten- 
sive tenant  farmer,  was  published  in  the  Cork 
Examiner , November  4,  1880.  It  shows  plainly 
and  clearly  why  the  failure  of  the  potato  crop 
had  such  fearful  consequences.  It  shows  that 
the  poverty  of  the  people  in  consequence  of 
excessive  rents  was  so  great,  that  a far  less 
disaster  would  have  crushed  them  : — 

“Rev.  Father  M‘Mahon,  P.P.,  Boherbee,  was  the  first 


How  Irish  Land  Industry  has  been  crippled.  1 5 1 


witness  examined.  He  spoke  very  strongly  in  favour  of  the 
reclamation  of  waste  lands,  and  gave  very  striking  instances 
of  it  in  his  own  locality.  In  the  year  1832,  the  Crown  lands 
around  Kingwilliamstown  passed  into  the  occupation  of  the 
Government,  and  at  this  time  the  place  was  only  moor  and 
swamp,  and  worth  nothing  as  land.  In  the  year  1854,  the 
Government  sold  the  Crown  lands  without  making  any  pro- 
vision for  the  tenantry,  who,  accordingly,  became  the  help- 
less prey  of  the  purchasers,  and  had  their  rents  doubled. 
They  also  actually  sold  the  schoolhouse,  which  cost 
to  build,  and  the  people  of  the  locality  were  deprived  of  the 
blessing  of  education  until  the  year  1862,  when  a new 
National  school  was  built.  Mr.  Dunscombe,  who  did  appro- 
priate the  old,  certainly  contributed  liberally  to  the  erection 
of  the  new  one  But  the  Government  both  sold  the  people 
and  consigned  them  to  ignorance.  In  1854,  two  townlands 
were  sold  to  Mr.  Vincent  Scully  for  ^6,800,  who,  four  years 
later,  parted  with  this  property  to  Mr.  Nicholas  Dunscombe 
for  the  sum  of  ^10,000.  When  the  Government  got  the 
land  originally  some  of  the  old  tenants  were  allowed  to 
remain  in  possession,  and  they  paid  a rent  of  £322.  When 
Mr.  Dunscombe  made  the  purchase  in  1854,  he  doubled  the 
rent,  making  it  ^644 ; and  after  Mr.  Dunscombe  became 
the  purchaser,  the  rent  was  further  raised  to  £700.  Mr. 
Dunscombe  also  became  the  purchaser  of  another  townland 
for  ^1,400;  the  Government  rent  was  £30  17s.,  and  the 
present  rent  was  p£8o.  The  late  Dr.  Twohill,  in  his  day, 
purchased  the  townland  of  Carraganes  for  £1,600;  the 
Government  rent  at  the  time  of  purchase  was  ^84  16s., 
while  it  is  now  .£139.  The  townland  of  Tweenglannahee 
was  purchased  by  Sir  James  Mackey  for  £2,700;  the 
Government  rent  was  ^147  13s.,  it  is  now  ^344.  All 
these  were  striking  instances  of  how  waste  lands  could  be 
improved  and  reclaimed  if  the  landlords  afforded  to  their 


152 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


tenants  the  proper  facilities  for  doing  so.  As  a general 
statement,  Father  M‘ Mahon  gave  it  out  that  the  improve- 
ments in  his  district  were  all  made  by  the  tenantry,  for  the 
place  he  had  spoken  of  was  only  moor  and  swamp  within 
living  memory,  and  the  labour  of  the  tenants  had  brought  it 
into  its  present  cultivable  and  valuable  state.  He  mentioned 
it  as  a case  of  hardship  that  the  landlords  refused  to  get 
money  from  the  Government  for  the  purpose  of  draining  and 
reclaiming  the  farms  of  their  tenants.  Mr.  Dunscombe  re- 
fused to  borrow  money  for  this  purpose,  although  the  tenants 
asked  for  it.  The  Earl  of  Cork  had  only  done  so  on  a 
small  scale,  although  it  is  badly  wanted,  and  the  people  had 
earned  it.  Mr.  Longfield  promised  to  get  money  for  some 
of  his  tenants,  but  he  had  not  done  so  up  to  the  present. 
As  a general  rule  the  tenants  in  his  (Father  M‘Mahon’s) 
parish  were  charged  a rent  of  double  the  valuation,  and  in 
some  cases  it  even  exceeded  this.  He  stated  most  positively 
and  unreservedly  that  Griffith’s  valuation  was  a sufficient 
rent  for  any  land  in  his  parish,  in  order  to  enable  people  to 
live  comfortably  on  their  farms.  The  late  depression  had 
shown  already  that  the  tenants  could  not  hold  on  under  the 
old  rents.  They  were  in  debt  to  the  country  shopkeepers, 
and  if  the  latter  pressed  the  tenants  for  payment  there  was 
not  one  of  them  would  have  house  or  home.  The  Cork 
traders  then,  in  turn,  were  indulgent  to  the  shopkeepers,  and 
between  the  two  the  tenants  were  saved,  although  the  traders 
and  shopkeepers  ran  the  risk  of  ruining  themselves,” 

Ex  uno  disce  omnes  is  true  of  the  state  of 
Ireland.  Rents  have  been  demanded  which 
the  people  could  not  pay  and  live  in  decency, 
nor  even  procure  the  poorest  necessaries  of 
life  ; then,  when  these  necessaries  failed,  there 


How  Irish  Land  Industry  has  been  crippled.  1 5 3 

was  famine.  And  there  was  more.  There  was 
a partial,  but  also  an  actual , national  bankruptcy. 

At  the  best  times,  people  were  living  from 
hand  to  mouth,  were  living  on  a most  precarious 
credit,  were  deeply  in  debt  to  bankers,  gombeen 
men  (local  money-lenders) ; shopkeepers,  &c., 
&c.,  all  because  the  inexorable  rent  must  be 
paid  ; it  was  paid  at  ruinous  loss  to  the  national 
credit.  Is  this  a state  of  things  that  should  be 
allowed  or  continued  in  this  nineteenth  century, 
in  a civilized  country  ? If  the  “ unspeakable 
Turk”  was  ruler  of  Ireland,  what  epithets  of 
indignation  and  scorn  would  be  heaped  on  his 
devoted  head.  But  we  are  only  governed  by 
England,  and  we  are  considered  very  wicked 
and  ungrateful  if  we  express  disapproval,  or 
state  our  case.  We  have,  indeed,  been  stating 
our  case  for  a great  many  centuries,  and  we 
have  been  getting  a little  justice  by  instalments, 
but  the  instalments  are  small,  and  the  process 
of  reparation  is  slow. 

Here  is  what  Mr.  Tuke,  an  English  banker 
who  visited  Ireland  in  1879-80,  has  to  say  on 
the  state  of  the  country.  At  present  I only 
quote  what  will  show  that  excessive,  or  rather 
usurious  rents,  were  the  principal  cause  of  the 
late  famine  : — 

“ Mr.  Pike  is  giving  work  to  over  100  men  on  his  estate^ 


1 54 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


who  earn  each  from  is.  to  is.  6d.  per  diem.  I was  much  struck 
by  the  hearty,  pleasant  way  in  which,  wherever  we  drove, 
the  tenants  met  or  received  their  landlord.  He  had  a kindly 
greeting  for  each,  whether  man,  woman,  or  child.  His 
estate  is  14,000  acres  in  extent,  of  which  a little  fringe, 
chiefly  on  the  sea-coast,  can  only  be  said  to  be  cultivated, 
giving  three  to  five  acres  of  arable  ground  each  to  the  400 
little  tenants,  whose  rents  vary  from  ^3  to  ^5.  In  addi- 
tion to  the  cultivated  land,  each  village  has  the  right  of  stray 
over  a large  extent  of  mountain  land'  for  the  cattle  : for  this 
they  pay  a small  sum  per  head  in  addition  to  the  rents 
mentioned  above.  As  compared  with  the  rents  charged  in 
many  other  places,  these  seem  very  moderate.  Moderate  as 
they  are,  the  people  holding  land  under  these  favourable 
conditions  cannot  live  on  the  littlfe  holdings  without  some 
paid  labour ; and  the  whole  able-bodied  population  of 
Achill,  I was  informed,  migrate  annually  to  Scotland  for 
work.  Last  year,  as  in  other  districts,  their  earnings  largely 
failed,  and  this  and  the  failure  of  crops  have  brought  them 
down  to  great  poverty,  and  left  them  deeply  in  debt  to  the 
shopkeeper  for  the  previous  year’s  supplies.  Hence  the 
very  large  number  I have  mentioned  who  are  leceiving 
relief  in  the  island.  The  usual  rate  of  interest  charged  here 
by  the  ‘ gombeen  ’ men  is  20  to  50  per  cent. 

“ I was  driven  over  to  the  Protestant  settlement,  and  told 
that  the  smaller  farmers  on  that  property  were  equally  indi- 
gent and  in  equal  need  of  assistance.  In  addition  to  the 
employment  given  by  Mr.  Pike,  he  and  his  family  are  doing 
much  to  relieve  the  distress.  The  benefit  thus  rendered  by 
one  resident  family  is  inestimable,  and  I heard  nothing  on 
this  estate  of  the  bitter  feeling  and  hostility  to  landlords,  so 
common  elsewhere. 

“ Leaving  the  island,  and  coming  on  the  mainland  again, 
to  the  estate  of  a non-resident  landlord,  where  the  people, 


How  Irish  Land  Industry  has  been  crippled . 1 5 5 

in  addition  to  being  in  great  destitution,  had  no  one  to  look 
up  to  for  employment  or  help  or  guidance,  I was  once  more 
painfully  impressed  with  the  grievous  injury  resulting  from 
the  non-resident  system.” 

I am  happy  to  say  that  I was  able  to  send 
help  to  this  district  from  my  Relief  Fund,  and 
the  letters  of  thanks  which  I received,  both 
from  the  Catholic  and  Protestant  clergymen, 
show  that  Mr.  Pike  certainly  did  not  overstate 
the  distress. 

It  will  be  noted  also  that  religion  had  nothing 
to  do  with  the  case.  Protestant  tenants  are 
quite  as  great  sufferers  as  Catholics  by  excessive 
rents.  If  they  are  more  contented,  or  more 
“loyal”  in  the  North,  it  is  because  they  are 
favoured  by  the  English  Government  with 
Ulster  tenant  right,  and  their  trade — the  linen 
trade — has  not  been  crushed. 

Here  is  the  cause  of  the  fearful  effects  of 
the  Famine  near  Westport— again  excessive 
rents 

“This  estate  is  one  which,  I fear,  is  a sample  of  many 
small  ones  which  have  been  sold  by  the  Encumbered 
Estates  Court.  It  was  purchased  some  years  ago  by  a mere 
speculator,  who  sent  down  a valuer  for  the  purpose  of 
raising  the  rents  to  the  highest  point.  ( He  doubled  them,’ 
it  is  said,  but  probably  raised  them  from  50  to  80  per  cent. 
This  was  done  without  any  regard  to  the  question  of  im- 
provements or  reclamations  of  the  tenants.  It  was  merely 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


lS& 

looked  at  as  a question  of  the  letting-value  of  each  little 
farm,  without  considering  the  tenant  at  all.  When  done, 
the  estate,  with  its  nominally  largely-increased  rental,  was 
again  sold  at  a large  profit,  and  the  rack-rented  tenants  have 
grown  poorer  and  poorer,  until  the  calamities  of  last  year 
have  brought  them  to  the  utmost  verge  of  poverty.  No 
rents  having  been  paid,  processes  were  served,  or  rather, 
attempted  to  be  served,  a few  weeks  ago.  Fifty  or  sixty 
police  constables  were  collected  to  protect  the  process- 
server.  The  people  hearing  of  it,  assembled  from  all  sides 
by  hundreds,  and,  by  sheer  force  of  numbers,  kept  the 
police  at  bay,  whilst  the  villagers  closed  up  their  doorways 
with  timber,  or  brushwood,  or  with  the  near-at-hand  manure 
heaps.  The  result  was  that  the  police  had  to  retire  without 
effecting  their  object  I heard  afterwards  that  some  pro- 
cesses had  been  served  by  the  bailiff,  and  a little  rent  paid. 

“ Many  of  the  families  were  seven,  eight,  or  ten  in 
number,  and  the  small  weekly  allowance  of  two  stones  of 
Indian  meal  per  family  was  hardly  enough  to  support  life. 
The  children  especially  looked  thin  and  wan.  Poor  as  these 
people  are,  their  kindness  one  to  another  is  always  striking. 
Of  this  we  saw  an  instance  in  a very  small  hut  in  which  a 
poor  ‘ daft’  woman  lived  alone,  supported  chiefly  by  her 
neighbours.  The  hut  was  not  more  than  six  or  seven  feet 
square,  and  had  recently  been  very  neatly  re-thatched  by 
two  of  her  neighbours.” 

Here  is  Mr.  Tukes's  account  of  the  late  Lord 
Leitrim’s  dealings  with  his  tenantry.  The  pre- 
sent Lord  Leitrim  is  a very  different  landlord. 
But  again,  why  are  Irish  tenants  to  be  at  the 
mercy  of  the  caprice,  or  the  sanity,  or  the 
morals  of  their  landlords  ? Why  are  they  not 


Ho  w Irish  Land  Industry  has  been  crippled.  157 


to  be  protected  by  law,  and  why  are  they  to  be 
called  rebels  and  traitors,  when  they  ask  simply 
for  the  protection  of  law  ? This  protection 
the  English  Government  was  obliged  to  extend 
to  India,  as  we  shall  show  presently.  Why  not, 
then,  extend  it  to  Ireland  also  ? — 

“ We  visited  a number  of  cabins,  from  some  of  which  the 
inhabitants  had  been  capriciously  evicted  by  the  late  lord. 
The  present  Lord  Leitrim  has  permitted  the  people  to 
return,  and  it  is  felt  to  be  an  act  of  great  kindness  on  his 
part  by  priest  and  people  ; but  to  us  it  appeared  of  doubtful 
future  benefit,  to  permit  people  to  return  to  the  cabins 
which  had  been  unroofed  and  ruined  by  the  late  lord,  and 
to  lands  which  had  fallen  out  of  cultivation,  and  to  give 
no  help  at  the  same  time  to  restore  either  (except,  we 
believe,  the  gift  of  a few  fir  poles  for  the  roofs).  The  rents, 
too,  are,  it  is  said,  to  be  higher  than  those  paid  before  ; yet 
such  is  the  extraordinary  attachment  of  the  people  to  their 
homesteads  that  they  are  returning  and  patching  up  their 
miserable  dwellings  as  best  they  may.  The  cabins,  recon- 
structed to  their  own  taste  by  the  people,  were  absolutely  win- 
dowless and  quite  dark.  One  elderly  woman,  who  had  been 
in  service  at  Carrickgart,  had  come  back  alone  to  her 
ruined  homestead,  and  out  of  the  stones  had  constructed 
herself  a hovel,  in  which  she  was  living.  It  was  doorless 
and  windowless,  and  the  size  of  a pigsty.  The  distress  is 
great  among  the  people  in  this  townland,  and  they  are  all 
receiving  relief.  Clothing  is  very  deficient,  bedding  nil. 
Relief  in  this  district  began  February  9th.  This  Union 
(Milford)  has  adopted  the  Seed  Act,  and  notices  of  a very 
clear  and  practical  character  have  been  sent  out  on  the 
subject. 


158  The  Case  of  Ireland  staled . 

“We  heard  a curious  instance  of  the  late  Lord  Leitrim’s 
capricious,  arbitrary  treatment  of  his  tenants  : In  passing  by 
?.  tenant’s  holding  Lord  L.  noticed  that  a good  new  cabin 
had  been  built,  in  place  of  the  miserable  hovel.  He  stopped 
and  asked  how  it  was  that  he  had  not  been  consulted,  and 
at  once  ordered  his  bailiff  to  pull  the  chimney  down  and 
partly  unroof  it,  and  the  man  was  compelled  to  leave  it  and 
live  in  the  old  hovel  again.” 

What  of  the  moral  murders  that  are  com- 
mitted in  Ireland,  and  for  which  landlords  and 
land  agents  are  accountable  ? How  many 
evicted  tenants  have  died  from  want  and  hard- 
ship ? How  many  are  even  now  cast  out  on 
the  streets  of  great  American  cities  to  perish 
slowly  there  ? 

Here  is  another  evidence  from  Mr.  Tuke's 
pamphlet  of  the  fact  that  evictions  are  cruel, 
and  that  rents  are  perpetually  raised  beyond  all 
power  of  paying  them  and  living  : — 

“ Cavern , March  nth. — In  the  coffee-room  the  all-absorb- 
ing question  of  the  Tenure  of  Land  was  under  discussion. 

“ A commercial  traveller  said  that,  owing  to  the  depres- 
sion in  trade,  not  more  than  half  the  usual  number  of 
travellers  were  now  engaged  in  the  West  of  Ireland.  He 
gave  the  experience  of  his  own  family  as  an  illustration  of 
the  need  lor  ‘ fixity  of  tenure,’  or  greater  security  for  im- 
provements effected  by  tenants.  His  father,  who  formerly 
resided  in  Ulster,  had  built  a corn-mill  on  land  belonging 
to  one  of  the  London  companies.  When  the  lease  expired, 
the  rent  was  raised,  probably  not  very  highly ; but  again  lie 


How  Irish  Land  Industry  has  been  crippled.  1 5 9 


built,  adding  this  time  a flax-mill.  Unfortunately  for  him, 
the  rent  was  again  raised,  and  the  property  sold  by  the 
company.  The  purchaser  also  raised  the  rent.  Aggravated 
by  the  sense  of  injury  done  him  in  having  to  pay  so  dearly 
for  his  own  improvements,  the  landlords  haying  done 
nothing,  he,  though  considerably  advanced  in  life,  deter- 
mined to  give  up  his  holding  and  emigrate  to  America.  He 
accordingly  advertised  his  tenant-right  in  the  property  for 
sale,  for  which  he  expected  to  obtain  ^600.  The  agent  for 
the  owner,  in  order  to  oblige  a person  whom  he  wished  to 
favour  as  the  future  tenant,  gave  out  at  the  sale  that  the 
rent  would  in  future  be  raised  very  considerably,  and  thus 
he  destroyed  or  lessened  the  value  of  the  tenant-right  to 
such  an  extent  that  the  seller  only  realised  a very  small  sum. 
This  stung  the  old  tenant  to  the  quick,  and,  aggravated  by 
the  fact  that,  after  all,  the  rent  was  not  raised,  he  and  his 
wife,  like  so  many  others,  left  their  native  land  with  the 
bitterest  animosity  in  their  minds.” 

“ Although  apart  from  the  question  of  Peasant  Proprietor- 
ship, I may,  perhaps,  be  allowed  to  add  (having  spent  many 
weeks  in  the  ‘ scheduled  districts  ’ of  Ireland),  that  I regard 
the  right  settlement  of  the  question  involved  in  the  1 Com- 
pensation for  Disturbances  Bill’  as  of  the  utmost  consequence 
to  the  tranquillity  of  the  West  of  Ireland.  Without  entering 
into  details,  I can  hardly  refrain  from  asking  the  opponents 
of  the  measure  whether  they  really  sufficiently  take  into 
account  the  entirely  exceptional  circumstances  of  the 
distressed  districts,  and  the  wholly  different  character  of  the 
relation  of  landlord  and  tenant  which  prevails  in  Ireland  as 
compared  with  England  ? 

“ 1.  As  to  the  actual  poverty  existing.  The  returns  of  the 
Agricultural  Produce  in  Ireland  for  1879,  prepared  by  the 
.Registrar- General,  show  That  the  depreciation  in  the  money 
value  of  the  crops  for  that  year  amounts,  at  its  lowest  esti- 


1 60  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

mate,  to  ^10,014.788,  as  compared  with  1878’ — a sum 
nearly  equal  to  the  annual  rating  value  of  the  agricultural 
land  of  Ireland.  Of  this  large  sum,  nearly  one-half, 
^4,238,484,  is  the  estimated  loss  on  the  potato  crop  alone, 
as  compared  with  1878,  the  returns  showing  that  the  quan- 
tity of  potatoes  was  only  22,000,000  cwt.,  as  against 
60,000,000  cwt.,  the  average  for  ten  years — a most  alarming 
decrease.  In  addition  to  this,  very  severe  losses  have  been 
sustained  in  cattle,  not  only  from  heavy  casualties,  but  also 
from  a great  depreciation  in  prices,  owing  in  part  to  the 
forced  sales,  and  inability  of  those  around  to  purchase.  I 
heard  of  sheep  selling  at  10 s.  or  less,  and  small  cows  at 
to  £$•  Nor  must  the  heavy  losses  sustained  by  the  tens  of 
thousands  of  men,  who  annually  come  for  employment  to 
England  or  Scotland,  and  who,  last  year,  returned  home 
without  any  wages,  be  overlooked.  I believe  the  estimate 
of  a loss  of  a million  sterling  to  be  under  the  exact  figures. 
When  to  this  is  added  the  inability  to  obtain  the  usual 
credit  from  the  shopkeeper,  whose  debts  for  the  previous 
year  were  unpaid,  I think  the  extreme  poverty  of  the  little 
Western  farmer  cannot  be  doubted. 

“ 2.  As  to  the  difference  in  the  relations  between  land- 
lord and  tenant  in  the  two  countries.  In  the  one  we  have 
the  landlord  who  has  built  the  house  and  other  buildings, 
and  let  his  land  drained  and  fenced  and  cultivated.  In  the 
other,  the  West  of  Ireland,  we  have  the  tenant,  whose 
families  have  lived  on  the  same  lands  for  generations,  who 
have  reclaimed  whatever  land  has  been  reclaimed,  and  cul- 
tivated whatever  is  cultivated,  and  built  whatever  is  built  of 
home  or  out-buildings,  and  who,  in  consequence,  feels  that 
he  has  a vested  right  in  the  soil,  which,  even  out  of  Ulster, 
he  can  in  ordinary  times  sell  to  an  incoming  tenant. 

“ Is  there  not  some  claim,  on  the  part  of  this  tenant,  for 
consideration,  if,  under  the  very  exceptional  circumstances, 


How  Irish  Land  Industry  has  heen  crippled \ 1 6 1 

he  is  unable  to  pay  his  rent,  and  has,  in  consequence,  notice 
to  quit? 

“ Nor  is  it  easy  to  prove  a correct  estimate  in  England  of 
the  extreme  hardships  of  eviction  in  a country  where  the 
xonly  resource  for  the  evicted  family  is  either  the  roadside  or 
the  workhouse — it  may  be  twenty,  or  thirty,  or  forty  miles 
distant.  In  my  recent  visit  I came  upon  several  villages 
where  processes  had  either  been  served  or  attempted  to  be 
served,  and  heard  of  many  others,  some  of  which  have  a' 
public  notoriety  from  the  conflicts  which  have  taken  place 
with  the  Constabulary,  ending  in  serious  injuries  on  both 
sides.  In  addition,  it  did  not  appear  to  be  in  any  way  con- 
cealed by  many  landlords  that  they  intended  to  evict  for 
non-payment  of  rent,  and  it  was  often  reported  that  the 
number  of  summonses  applied  for  was  without  precedent. 

“ The  task  which  the  Chief  Secretary  for  Ireland  is  called 
upon  to  attempt,  and  to  which  he  brings,  in  addition  to  his 
great  abilities  as  a statesman,  the  highest  sense  of  duty  and 
the  determination  to  act  with  justice  to  all,  whether  poor  or 
rich,  is  one  before  which  a less  able  man,  or  one  less  devoted 
to  duty,  might  well  quail ; and  for  him,  there  may  well  come 
times  when  he  begins  to  shrink  from  the  thankless  task,  in 
face  of  the  determined  opposition  of  his  opponents,  or  the 
defection  or  cool  support  of  his  friends,  and  the  worrying  of 
a small  body  of  determined  men,  who,  under  the  guise  of 
friends  to  Ireland,  daily  prove  themselves  her  enemies.1 

Is  it  any  matter  of  surprise  that  Irish  indus- 
tries and  manufactures  fail,  and  are  our  people 
to  bear  all  the  blame,  when  we  find  discourage- 
ment in  the  present,  and  positive  prohibition  in 
the  past  ? 


Mr.  Tuke,  in  Nineteenth  Century  for  August,  1880. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


THE  SOCIAL  RELATIONS  BETWEEN  LANDLORDS 
AND  TENANTS. 

“I  am  convinced  that  confusion  and  disaster  will  continue  to  mark 
the  relation  between  the  islands,  till  Englishmen  confront  the  facts 
courageously,  and  with  a determination  to  discover  the  springhead  from 
which  discord  flows.” — Gavan  Duffy. 

AM  convinced  that  if  the  unworthy 
devices  resorted  to  by  landlords  and 
land  agents  were  once  known  to  the 
public  as  they  are,  that  there  would  be  a cry  of 
indignation.  But  they  are  not  known,  and  who 
is  to  proclaim  the  miserable  story  ? How  men 
bearing  the  name  of  gentlemen  can  degrade 
themselves  so  low,  is  a mystery.  There  is  no 
public  opinion  to  bring  them  face  to  face  with 
their  miserable  selfishness.  Hence,  they  are 
probably  blinded  to  it.  They  act  as  men 
would  do  in  a foreign  land  with  savage  tribes, 
rather  than  as  Christian  gentlemen  with  Chris- 
tian men.  These  acts  of  theirs  which  are  so 
unworthy,  are,  indeed,  noticed  and  exposed 
from  time  to  time  in  local  papers.  But  this 
concerns  them  little.  Nothing  is  known  in 


Social  Relations . 


163 

England,  where  public  opinion  would  soon  see 
it  at  an  end.  Nor,  possibly,  are  these  acts 
so  dishonourable  as  they  appear.  These 
gentlemen  have  the  traditions  of  centuries  to 
support  them  in  treating  the  Irish  people  as 
outside  the  pale  of  English  law.  They  have 
the  traditions  of  centuries  to  support  them  in 
getting  all  they  possibly  can  out  of  their  depen- 
dants, and  treating  them  as  an  inferior  race,  fit 
only  to  be  used  as  serfs.  What  they  would  not 
do,  probably,  even  if  they  dare  do  it,  on  their 
English  estates,  they  do  as  a matter  of  course 
in  Ireland.  Yet  Ireland  is  taunted  with  dis- 
loyalty, and  with  not  being  devoted  to  a Govern- 
ment which  certainly  has  done  little  to  give  her 
common  justice. 

Sir  Gavan  Duffy,  in  his  recent  work  on  Ire- 
land, says  : — 

“ At  present  they  [the  English  people]  see  with  amaze- 
ment and  dismay  a whole  people  who  profess  to  have  no 
confidence  in  their  equity,  who  proclaim  that  they  do  not 
expect  fair  play  from  them,  and  who  fall  into  ecstacies  of 
triumph  over  some  disaster  abroad  or  embarrassment  at 
home  which  endangers  or  humiliates  the  Empire ; and  they 
will  not  take  the  obvious  means  of  comprehending  this 
phenomenon.” 

1 

This  is  the  unhappy  truth.  The  great 
majority  of  the  English  people  are  so  perfectly 


164  The  Case  of  Ireland  staled . 

satisfied  “they  know  all  about  Ireland,”  that 
they  will  not  take  the  trouble  of  informing 
themselves.  They  do  not  know  how  com- 
pletely they  are  led  by  preconceived  opinions  ; 
still  less  have  they  even  an  idea  how  wrong 
their  preconceived  opinions  are.  English 
gentlemen  send  me  over  English  papers  with 
paragraphs  strongly  marked,  but  only  such  para- 
graphs are  so  noted  as  agree  with  their  own 
preconceived  opinions.  To-day  I have  a Times 
sent  me  by  an  English  gentleman,  who  I know 
in  his  own  fashion  wishes  well  to  Ireland,  but 
hapless  prejudice  has  so  blinded  him  as  to 
render  him  actually  incapable  of  reasoning  fairly. 
He  marks  passages  in  English  papers  where  we 
are  told  that  capital  is  being  driven  out  of  Ire- 
land by  agitators,  which,  no  doubt,  he  believes. 
But  what  capital  has  been  driven  out  ? or  who  is 
being  driven  out  ? Whenever  there  is  an  agi- 
tation  in  Ireland  we  are  assured  that  some 
mysterious  and  beneficent  individual  has  just 
been  on  the  point  of  doing  something  very 
wonderful  for  Ireland,  but  all  his  good  inten- 
tions are  defeated  by  those  dreadful  agitators. 
We  have  lost,  it  is  insinuated,  what  would  for  ever 
more  have  given  peace  and  prosperity  to  Ire- 
land, and  it  is  all  our  own  fault,  and  we  do  not 
deserve  to  have  anything  more  done  for  us  ! 


Social  Relations. 


165 

But  somehow  this  mysterious  benefactor,  this 
wonderful  merchant  prince,  always  selects  an  un- 
fortunate time  for  doing  this  wonderful  good  to 
Ireland.  In  peaceful  intervals  we  never  hear  of 
him,  and,  yet  strange  to  say,  we  are  begging 
such  persons  to  come  always,  or  better  still,  we 
are  asking  permission  to  develop  our  industrial 
resources,  to  extend,  for  example,  our  fisheries, 
and  yet  we  cannot  get  help.  But  there  is  always 
this  mysterious  capitalist  who  hovers  in  the 
misty  skies  of  incipient  “risings,”  and  vanishes 
in  our  hours  of  peace.  What  marvel  is  it  if 
Irishmen  who  know  that  he  is  a myth  conjured 
up  at  a special  time  for  a special  purpose,  have 
lost  confidence  in  English  justice  and  in  English 
truth. 

Then,  there  are  “ the  best  friends  of  Ireland” 
who  are  always  driven  out  of  Ireland  (by  the 
English  press)  at  this  particular  time.  We 
never  hear  who  they  are.  One  of  our  great 
complaints  is  that  Irish  landlords  will  not  live 
in  Ireland.  We  never  get  the  name  of  any 
individual  landlord  compelled  to  flee  the  country. 
But,  yes,  I mistake,  now  and  then  an  English 
paper  is  rash  enough  to  name  an  injured  and 
marked  landlord.  Lord  Kenmare,  for  example, 
was  shot  at  (in  the  English  papers)  but  as  his 
lordship  denied  the  accusation  promptly,  gene- 


1 66  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

ralities  had  to  be  resorted  to  again.  Still,  these 
writers  have  the  courage  of  their  opinions.  If 
one  landlord  denies  being  shot  at,  or  com- 
pelled to  go  into  exile  and  leave  a thankless 
people  on  whom  he  has  lavished  untold  favours, 
there  is  always  the  resource  of  falling  back  on 
generalities,  and  that  answers  all  the  purpose 
with  a public  prepared  to  believe  them.  There 
is  no  one  to  contradict  what  is  said  of  every  one. 
But  is  this  the  way  to  make  Ireland  love  Eng- 
land ? Nay,  rather,  is  this  the  way  to  make 
Ireland  respect  England  ? 

We  have  already  given  so  many  specimens 
of  this  style  of  calumny,  of  this  grave  injury 
which  the  English  people  are  doing  to  them- 
selves, that  more  seems  scarcely  necessary. 
Yet,  as  the  following  speaks  directly  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  social  relations  between  landlord  and 
tenant,  we  append  it  here. 

“ Lord  Lucan  writes  to  the  editor  of  the  Daily  News : — 

“ ‘ Sir, — My  attention  has  been  called  to  your  paper  of 
Saturday  last,  the  30th  October,  in  which  your  Special  Com- 
missioner, in  a letter  from  Castlebar  of  Oct.  28th,  alluding 
to  me,  states  that  ‘ The  popular  party  gloat  over  the 
spectacle  of  an  aged  peer  compelled  to  ride  over  his 
“ amateur”  Castlebar  farm  attended  by  a brace  of  constables 
to  protect  him  from  public  vengeance.’  I am  happy  to  be 
able  to  state  that  you  have  never  attempted  to  circulate  a 
grosser  untruth.  I have  never  received,  never  required,  and 


Social  Relations . 


167 


most  certainly  never  desired,  any  police  protection  what- 
ever. During  the  forty  years  that  I have  been  active  in  the 
discharge  of  my  public  and  private  business — more  fortunate 
than  many  others  in  Mayo — I have  never  been  offered  by 
anybody,  in  writing  or  otherwise,  one  word  menacing  or 
offensive.’  ” 

What  is  to  be  said  of  the  hope  of  any  justice 
being  done  for  Ireland  by  England  when  the 
special  of  an  English  paper  who  is  supposed  to 
have  come  to  Ireland  for  the  express  purpose 
of  writing  facts,  writes  to  his  paper,  and  for  the 
English  public,  what  a nobleman  characterises  as 
the  “grossest  untruth.”  And  that  this  should 
be  done  by  the  Daily  News , is  certainly  a pain- 
ful sign  of  the  times.  Society  papers,  which 
write  exclusively  to  please  the  upper  classes, 
may  be  pardoned  for  keeping  up  a delusion 
which  helps  to  support  their  existence,  and  they 
do  not  send  out  special  correspondents.  But 
the  Daily  News , which  is  supposed  to  be  a 
Liberal  paper,  might  at  least  be  expected  to  do 
justice  to  the  cause  of  an  oppressed  people. 

Again,  I ask  sensible  Englishmen,  is  it  any 
matter  of  surprise,  not  that  there  is  discontent 
in  Ireland,  but  that  there  is  so  little  hope  of  re- 
dress from  England.  If  popular  organs  of  Eng- 
lish opinion  persist  in  writing  what  is  false,  what 
is,  in  truth,  so  outrageously  false,  about  the  rela- 
tions between  Irish  landlords  and  their  tenants, 


1 68 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 


what  hope  is  there  that  the  Irish  people  will 
obtain  a fair  hearing  from  England  ? And 
what  an  injustice  all  this  is  to  England. 

There  is  a remarkable  similarity  between  the 
relationships  of  landlords  and  tenants  as  they 
were,  till  quite  recently,  in  Bengal,  and  as  they 
are  now  in  Ireland. 

The  subject  is  one  of  immense  importance, 
and  it  is  one  which  demands  the  most  careful 
consideration  of  the  English  people.  We  shall 
enter  into  this  more  fully  in  another  chapter; 
but  in  connection  with  the  present  subject  we 
may  remark  that  it  was  obliged  actually  to  be 
made  illegal  for  an  English  landlord  in  Bengal 
to  exact  any  excess  above  the  legal  rate  of 
rent. 

Now,  let  us  see  how  Gladstone’s  Act  is 
evaded  in  Ireland. 

Mr.  William  Barry,  of  Carrigtwohill,  County 
Cork,  was  examined  before  the  present  Land 
Commissioners.  This  gentleman  farms  286  acres 

o 

of  land  (statute  measure).  He  was  appointed 
by  the  Midleton  Board  of  Guardians  as  a depu- 
tation along  with  General  Roche.  He  said  : — 

“ Lord  Bessborough  asked  what  Mr.  Barry  thought  of  the 
operation  of  the  Land  Act  of  1870. 

“ Mr.  Barry  said  he  considered  the  Land  Act  one  of  the 
best  measures  ever  introduced  into  Ireland  if  it  had  not  been 


Social  Relations . 


169 


evaded.  In  every  instance  he  knew  in  the  granting  of  new 
leases  the  tenant  was  contracted  out  of  the  Act.  This  was 
especially  the  case  as  regards  the  county  cess,  which  is  now 
added  on  as  an  addition  to  the  rent.  He  would  suggest 
that  all  clauses  and  provisions  in  future  leases,  depriving  the 
tenant  of  the  benefit  of  the  present  or  any  future  Land  Act, 
should  be  declared  void.  Mr.  Barry  continued  to  say  that 
improvements  had  been  made  by  the  tenant ; and  in  some 
instances,  by  large  landed  proprietors,  farmsteads  had  been 
erected  and  drainings  carried  out,  but  at  the  expense  of  the 
tenant,  by  reason  of  an  addition  to  his  rent.  Mr.  Barry 
proceeded  to  remark  that  it  was  deplorable  to  witness  the 
ignorance  which  the  great  majority  of  the  landed  proprietors 
in  Ireland,  and  of  the  agents  also,  displayed  as  to  the  pro- 
ductiveness of  their  properties.  This,  he  believed,  led  to 
considerable  misunderstandings  between  them  and  their 
tenants  on  the  question  of  rent.  A tenant  complains  of 
holding  at  an  exhorbitant  rent,  and  he  has  to  apply  for  a re- 
valuation to  a man  who  has  no  practical  knowledge  of  the 
value  of  the  article  he  is  about  to  put  a price  on.  As  a 
practical  farmer  he  had  been  appealed  to  in  many  cases  of 
late  years  to  give  his  opinion,  and  he  had  been  the  means  of 
settling  many  disputes  between  landlord  and  tenant.  This 
greatly  strengthened  his  opinions  as  to  the  necessity  of  hav- 
ing a Board  of  impartial  and  practical  men  to  adjust  rents 
between  landlord  and  tenant.” 

We,  in  Ireland,  are  called  “lawless;”  but 
who  are  the  lawless  class  in  Ireland?  Might 
we  not  expect  an  example  of  respecting  law 
from  Irish  landlords,  and  yet  they  are  as  a 
class  the  most  notorious — I will  not  say  “ law 
breakers” — but  law  evaders  in  Ireland. 


I 70  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated \ 

The  Devon  Commission  in  its  report,  in 
1847,  said  : — 

“ That  the  safety  of  the  country  and  the  respective 
interests  of  both  classes  call  loudly  for  a cautious  but 
immediate  adjustment  of  the  grave  questions  at  issue.  . . In 
every  district  of  the  country  we  find  that  a widely  spread 
and  daily  increasing  confusion  exists  ; and  it  is  impossible  to 
reject  the  conclusion  that,  unless  they  be  distinctly  defined 
and  respected,  much  social  disorder  and  national  inconve- 
nience must  inevitably  be  the  consequence S' 

Mr.  Bright  wrote  thus  as  late  as  1868  : — 

“ Rochdale, 

“ January  27th,  1868. 

“ My  Dear  Sir, — I have  read  the  * proposals  ’ over  with 
great  interest  and  care.  They  are  wide,  and  embrace  the 
whole  Irish  difficulty,  and,  if  adopted,  would  at  once  apply 
a remedy  to  the  two  branches  of  the  grand  question.  For 
twenty  years  I have  always  said  that  the  only  way  to 
remedy  the  evils  of  Ireland  is  by  legislation  on  the  Church 
and  the  Land.  But  we  are  met  still  with  this  obstacle, 
even  yet,  I fear,  insurmountable,  that  the  legislation  must 
come  from  and  through  a Parliament  which  is  not  Irish, 
and  in  which  every  principle  essential  for  the  regeneration 
of  Ireland  is  repudiated.  The  knowledge  of  this  makes  me 
hesitate  as  to  the  wisdom  of  your  ‘proposals’  in  their 
present  shape.  I fear  the  scheme  is  so  broad,  and  so  good, 
and  so  complete,  that  Parliament  would  stand  aghast  at  it. 
To  strike  down  an  Established  Church,  and  to  abandon  the 
theory  of  our  terrtorial  system  by  one  Act  of  Parliament 
would  be  too  much  for  Parliament,  and  would  destroy  any 
Government  that  suggested  it.  I can  conceive  a condition 


Social  Relatio?is. 


1 71 

of  things  in  Ireland  under  which  such  a great  change  might 
be  accomplished — if  Ireland  were  united  in  demanding  it, 
and  were  menacing  Great  Britain  if  it  should  be  refused  ; 
but  now,  I suspect  our  rulers,  though  uncomfortable,  are  not 
sufficiently  alarmed  to  yield.  The  English  people  are  in 
complete  ignorance  of  Irish  wrongs,  and  know  little  or 
nothing  of  the  real  condition  of  your  country.  This  is  a sad 
picture,  but  it  is  not  coloured  too  darkly.” 

In  1870  Ireland  got  a Land  Act.  Slow, 
indeed,  was  the  process  by  which  the  ignorance 
of  Ireland  was  removed,  which  made  it  at  last 
known  that  such  an  Act  was  necessary.  No 
doubt  the  Act  was  one  of  great  benefit ; but  let 
English  people  say  what  they  think  of  Irish 
landlords  who  evade  the  laws  made  for  them  in 
England,  and  actually  render  the  Act  of  no 
avail  to  the  very  persons  whom  it  was  made  to 
protect. 

What  shall  be  said  of  the  honour  of  these 
gentlemen  ; and  yet,  “ they  are  all  honourable 
men.” 

Let  it  be  distinctly  understood  that  evasion 
of  this  Act,  in  one  form  or  another,  and  often 
in  many  forms,  is  the  usual  custom  of  Irish  and 
Anglo-Irish  landlords  in  Ireland.  Ireland  is 
governed  by  those  gentlemen,  and  by  their 
arbitrary  “ estate  rules,”  and  not  by  English 
law.  Ireland  asks  to  be  governed  by  English 
law ; those  gentlemen,  naturally,  prefer  their 


172 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 


own  code,  which  has  many  of  the  miseries  of  a 
feudal  system  without  any  of  its  mercies.  Will 
England  tolerate  this  longer  ? Are  Englishmen 
to  expend  enormous  sums  in  Ireland  for  military 
force  and  police  officials,  in  order  to  enable 
certain  gentlemen  to  carry  out  an  arbitrary  code 
of  oppressive  private  regulations  ? 

And  all  this  is  to  be  done  for  the  doubtful 
benefit  of  a few  gentlemen.  The  Freeman  s 
Journal,  commenting  on  the  recent  visits  of  ex- 
cited landlords  to  Dublin  Castle,  says  : — 

“ Out  of  a population  of  5,300,000,  4,300,000  are  reckoned 
as  the  agricultural  population  of  Ireland.  These  millions 
are  in  a vast  majority  of  cases  completely  dependent  upon 
the  land  for  support,  and  it  may  be  said  a priori  that  if  there 
is  any  country  in  the  world  in  which  it  is  desirable  to  have  a 
large  and  widely  distributed  body  of  yeoman  proprietors,  that 
country  is  Ireland.  Such  proprietors,  wherever  they  exist, 
are  always  found  to  be  Conservative  in  the  best  sense  of  the 
word,  deeply  interested  in  public  peace  and  order,  self-deny- 
ing and  saving,  prosperous  and  contented.  But  how  can 
there  be  any  sufficient  number  of  such  owners  in  Ireland 
when  twelve  men  hold  in  the  aggregate  1,297,888  acres,  and 
it  is  possible  for  a hundred  individuals  to  represent  half  the 
land  ? Nor  is  it  only  that  so  large  a portion  of  the  soil  is 
in  the  hands  of  a few.  A large  proportion  of  the  great 
landowners  of  Ireland  are  absentees,  spending  nothing 
among  their  tenants  and  neighbours— taking  everything  out 
and  putting  nothing  in.  The  total  value  of  the  rent  of  Ire- 
land, as  given  in  the  return  called  for  by  Mr.  Bright,  is 
£"10,180,000.  Of  this  sum  not  less  than  ,£3,000,000  is 


Social  Relations. 


173 


paid  annually  out  of  Ireland  to  proprietors  who  never  reside 
there — to  the  persons  represented  by  the  deputation  of 
Thursday.  In  the  course  of  their  interview  with  the  Lord 
Lieutenant,  the  spokesman  of  the  landlords  thought  fit  to 
say  that  they  should  in  future  keep  away  1 from  the  dis- 
charge of  any  public  duties.’  A curious  conception  of  what 
is  required  of  men  in  their  position  at  a critical  period  of 
their  country’s  history,  but  entirely  in  accordance  with  the 
traditions  of  Irish  landlordism.  The  marvel  is  that  land- 
lords on  this  side  of  the  Channel  should  be  anxious  to 
make  common  cause  with  individuals  who  are,  as  a body,  as 
neglectful  of  their  duty  to  their  country  as  they  are  regard- 
less of  the  just  claims  of  the  tillers  of  the  soil.  The  English 
proprietor,  though  he  takes  much,  gives  not  a little  in  return 
both  to  his  country  and  his  property  ; but  what  do  the 
hundred  representatives  of  ‘ half  the  property  of  Ireland’ 
give  to  the  one  or  the  other  ?”  1 

Unquestionably  it  is  time  for  the  people  of 
England  to  have  a clear  idea  of  the  causes  of  Irish 
discontent.  Excessive  rent  is,  no  doubt,  one 
great  cause,  but  the  whole  subject  of  landlord 
government  of  Ireland  is  a great  cause  ; and 
not  the  least  extraordinary  part  of  the  extra- 


1 Of  the  whole  20,327,764  acres  which  form  the  area  of  the  island, 
nearly  one-half  is  owned  by  740  persons,  apportioned  thus:  4,152,142 
by  no  persons,  2,607,719  by  193,  and  3,071,471  by  440  others. 
Against  this  the  last  census  shows  that  5,250,000  persons  own  not  a 
rood , and  that  94,000  families  (averaging  from  six  to  seven  each,  or,  in 
all,  nearly  one-tenth  of  the  whole  population)  inhabit  one-roomed  huts 
of  about  twelve  feet  square,  while  the  absentee  rents  drawn  from  the 
country,  and  chiefly  spent  abroad,  amount  to  nearly  ^9,000,000  a year. 


i 74  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

ordinary  social  history  of  Ireland  is  the  fact  that 
on  occasions  English  writers,  even  in  the  press, 
admit  the  whole  case. 

“In  1847,  property  in  Ireland  (said  the  Times)  is  ruled 
with  most  savage  and  tyrannical  sway.  The  landlords  there 
exercise  their  rights  with  a rod  of  iron,  and  neglect  their 
duties  with  a face  of  brass.  And  again,  eleven  years  later, 
when  publishing  the  remarkable  exposures  of  abuse  made 
by  its  special  commissioner  in  1858  : ‘For  generations  the 
proprietors  of  the  land  in  Ireland  have  been  Spartans  among 
a helot  peasantry,  almost  planters  among  negro  slaves.’  In 
1868  Mr.  Butt  bore  witness  : ‘ Nearly  the  whole  peasant 
population  of  Ireland  hold  their  farms  as  tenants  at  will. 
Never  in  the  worst  days  of  the  penal  laws  were  the  oc- 
cupiers so  much  at  the  mercy  of  the  proprietors.  Imperfect 
as  the  protection  was  which  he  formerly  received,  even  that 
little  is  now  gone.  . . . And  this  power  is  now  wielded 

mercilessly  by  the  majority  of  Irish  landlords.  On  some  of 
the  estates  tenants  dare  not  harbour  in  their  houses  a 
stranger,  a poor  person,  or  even  a poor  relative  not  imme- 
diately belonging  to  the  family.  Nor  can  marriages  be  con- 
tracted without  the  sanction  of  the  landlord  or  his  agent. 
Many  of  the  landlords  serve  notices  to  quit  regularly  every 
gale  day  after  they  have  received  their  rents,  in  order  to 
keep  eternally  in  their  hands  the  power  of  immediate  evic- 
tion. Can  slavery  be  more  completely  established  than 
this  ? Can  industry  make  its  way  under  such  circumstances  ? 
Can  enterprise  do  aught  to  lift  these  poor  serfs?  Can 
capital  venture  out  in  a community  so  unsettled,  so  op- 
pressed, so  unsafe  ? Landed  property  in  Ireland  can  show 
us  no  title  which  requires  us  to  tolerate  such  a terrible  con- 
dition of  society.*  ” 


Social  Relations . 


'7  5 

Even  Mr.  Froude  is  compelled  to  admit 
that  : — 

“ The  landlords  of  Ireland  represent  conquest  and  con- 
fiscation, and  they  have  gone  on  with  an  indifference  to  the 
welfare  of  the  people  that  would  never  have  been  tolerated 
in  England  or  Scotland.” 

But  more  valuable  than  anything  that  pre- 
cedes, is  the  testimony  of  Lord  Dufferin — him- 
self one  of  the  best  of  Irish  landlords — in  his 
speech  last  year  in  the  House  of  Lords  : — 

“What,”  he  said,  “is  the  spectacle  presented  to  us  by 
Ireland  ? It  is  that  of  millions  of  persons,  whose  only 
dependence  and  whose  chief  occupation  is  agriculture  for 
the  most  part  cultivating  their  lands,  that  is,  sinking  their 
past,  their  present,  and  their  future  upon  yearly  tenancies. 
But  what  is  a yearly  tenancy  ? Why,  it  is  an  impossible 
tenure — a tenure  which,  if  its  terms  were  to  be  literally 
interpreted,  no  Christain  man  would  offer,  and  none  but  a 
madman  would  accept.” 

Yet  such  is  the  tenure  under  which  more 
than  75  per  cent,  of  the  600,000  tenant  farmers 
of  Ireland — who  with  their  families  number 
one-third  of  the  whole  population — now  occupy 
their  holdings. 1 

“ To  go  back  little  more  than  a century  and  a half  ago, 
Swift  then  testified  as  to  the  state  of  things  in  his  day : 


* Irish  Land  Reform , Fraser,  March,  1 880. 


176 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


‘Another  cause  of  this  [Irish]  nation’s  misery  is  that 
Egyptian  bondage  of  cruel,  oppressive,  covetous  landlords, 
expecting  all  who  live  under  them  should  make  bricks  with- 
out straw,  who  grieve  and  envy  when  they  see  a tenant  of 
their  own  in  a whole  coat,  or  able  to  afford  one  comfortable 
meal  in  a month,  by  which  the  spirits  of  the  people  are 
broken  and  made  fit  for  slavery — the  farmers  and  cottagers 
being  almost  through  the  whole  kingdom,  to  all  intents  and 
purposes,  as  real  beggars  as  any  of  those  to  whom  we  give 
our  charity  in  the  streets.’  ” 

Is  it  any  matter  of  surprise  that  a people  so 
used  should  rebel,  and  that  they  are  so  used  the 
present  Land  Commission  will  prove  past  all 
possibility  of  dispute  or  denial. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


SOCIAL  RELATIONS  BETWEEN  IRISH  LANDLORDS 
AND  TENANTS. 

( Continued. ) 

“Ten  years  ago,  Bishop  Nulty,  having  witnessed  the  heart-rending 
scenes  at  an  eviction,  went  home  and  wrote  a pastoral,  in  which  he  said 
that  the  sentence  of  an  eviction  on  each  of  these  tenants  amounted  to  a 
sentence  of  death.” — Cork  Examiner , November,  1880. 

UT  grave  as  is  this  injustice  to  the  Irish 
tenants,  by  which  his  landlord,  noble  or 
esquire,  obliges  him  to  sign  a document 
for  the  purpose  of  depriving  him  of  the  benefit 
of  the  laws  made  by  England  for  his  protection, 
there  are  other  social  injustices,  may  I not  say 
frauds. 

And  here  let  me  answer  one  favourite  objec- 
tion of  Irish  landlords.  It  was  made  to  myself 
both  by  Lord  Lansdowne  and  his  agent,  Mr. 
Trench.  Both  said  that  some  of  the  tenants  on 
Lord  Lansdowne’s  estates  had  been  offered 
leases  and  had  refused  them.  I know  further 
that  many  Irish  landlords  have  used  this  same 
plea  of  justification,  a plea  to  prevent  legisla- 
tion, which  they  seem  to  dread  as  much  as  the 


178  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated \ 

poor  desire  it.  If  they  are  willing  to  give  their 
tenants  leases,  why  do  they  object  to  do  so 
under  legal  regulations  ? 

But,  it  will  be  said,  why  do  Irish  tenants  refuse 
leases  ? Simply  because  when  they  do  get  a lease, 
except  in  some  rare  cases,  they  are  obliged  to  de- 
prive themselves  of  their  legal  rights.  Because, 
in  some  cases  now,  they  hope  against  hope  that  a 
fair  and  just  land  law  may  be  given  them  by  the 
English  people  ; because,  alas  ! they  dread  with 
a dread  the  fruit  of  centuries  of  injustice,  that 
there  will  be  some  evasion  to  their  disadvantage 
in  any  dealings  with  their  landlords. 

I must  confess  that  I know  the  ignorance  of 
the  English  people  on  the  social  state  of  Ireland 
so  well,  that  I can  scarcely  expect  to  be  believed. 
And  yet  facts  are  not  less  facts  because  they  are 
doubted. 

That  Mr.  Gladstone’s  Act  is  perpetually 
evaded  to  the  grievous  loss  of  the  tenant  for 
whom  it  is  intended,  I have  given  proof  past 
dispute.  I might  multiply  this  proof,  but  to 
what  avail  ? 

Let  me  now  give  proof  of  how  this  dread  of 
overreaching  on  the  part  of  landlords  has  acted 
in  this  very  famine  year,  and  show  how  pain- 
fully just  the  apprehensions  of  the  people  were. 
It  was  announced  that  in  order  to  give  employ- 


Social  Relations . 


179 


ment  in  the  Famine,  Government  would  give 
loans  to  Irish  lands,  and  Irish  landlords  were 
suspiciously  willing  to  accept  these  loans.  Irish 
landlords  were  held  up  as  models  of  virtue  for 
giving  employment  to  their  tenants.  But  the 
tenants  were  not  grateful  at  first.  I must  admit 
that  I feel  indignant  myself  that  those  for  whom 
I had  laboured  hard  to  provide  actually  neces- 
sary food — food  required  for  bare  existence — 
should  be  so  shamelessly  idle  as  to  refuse  em- 
ployment. The  landlord  made  a wonderful 
complaint,  and,  until  we  heard  the  other  side, 
how  just  it  seemed!  Here  was,  indeed,  an 
exemplification  of  Irish  laziness  and  Irish  in- 
gratitude. The  following  paragraph  from  the 
Kerry  Sentinel  will  explain  the  tenants’  side  of 
the  question,  and  will  show  how,  even  in  a time 
of  dire  distress,  the  first  object  of  too  many  Irish 
landlords  was  to  get  their  property  improved  at 
the  expense  of  their  tenants,  and,  it  will  hardly 
be  credited,  to  make  their  tenants  actually  pay 
in  perpetuity  for  it.  Is  it  then  any  matter  of 
surprise  that  Irish  tenants  are  not  devoted  to 
landlords  or  land  agents  ? 

“Some  persons  are  disposed  to  look  upon  the  present 
depression  in  Ireland  as  a harbinger  of  good  to  the  farming 
classes.  They  suppose  that  it  has  opened  the  eyes  of  Irish 
landlords  to  the  evil  effects  which  must  result  from  excessive 


1 80  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

rents  and  wholesale  eviction  of  the  peasantry.  There  could 
be  no  greater  mistake.  The  landlords  of  Ireland  are  the 
only  class  of  the  community  who  will  benefit  by  the  Famine. 
The  merchants,  the  traders,  and  the  artizans  of  America, 
France,  and  Australia,  are  supporting  their  tenantry  for  them 
at  present — helping  them  over  the  bad  times — while  not  one 
penny  goes  out  of  the  landlords’  pockets  for  their  relief; 
and  when  the  present  deeper  gloom  clears  off,  the  oppressive 
rack-rent  on  the  Irish  farmers  resumes  its  gradual  crushing 
functions  again.  The  landlords  are  wonderfully  benefitting 
themselves  by  the  trying  exigencies  of  the  occasion.  Lately 
we  had  occasion  to  refer  to  the  conduct  of  the  M‘Gillicuddy 
of  the  Reeks,  who  has  got  his  tenants  to  sign  an  agreement 
to  pay  8 per  cent,  for  the  money  for  which  he  pays  3^  Per 
cent,  for  a certain  number  of  years,  but  the  principle  is  then 
discharged ; whereas  there  appears  to  be  no  hope  that  there 
will  be  a termination  to  the  burden  of  8 per  cent,  and  io  per 
cent,  imposed  on  the  tenants.  But  the  M‘Gillycuddy  is  not 
the  only  landlord  who  seems  determined  to  benefit  by  the 
‘ charity  ’ which  the  Government  seems  to  think  it  is  extend- 
ing towards  Irish  farmers.  Will  anyone  believe  that  the 
most  noble  Marquis  of  Lansdowne  is  charging  his  tenants 
five  per  cent,  on  the  money  which  he  has  borrowed  on  the 
terms  we  have  before  stated,  and  the  5 per  cent,  is  put  on 
as  a permanent  increase  of  rent.  We  have  heard  even  Kerry 
landlords  express  their  disgust  at  the  course  pursued  by  The 
M‘Gillicuddy.  Will  the  exalted  position  of  the  Marquis  of 
Lansdowne  save  him  from  the  odium  which  honest  men  are 
disposed  to  attach  to  such  proceedings  ? But  the  Marquis 
is  determined  to  benefit  by  the  Government  loans  in  another 
way.  Hitherto,  lime  was  given  to  the  tenant  farmers  at 
Kenmare  for  is.  per  barrel  to  all  who  took  joo  barrels  of  it. 
Now,  with  the  increased  facilities  which  Government  gives 
to  landlords,  the  tenants  on  the  Marquis’  property  have  to 


Social  Relations - 


1 8 1 


sign  a written  agreement  that  they  will  pay,  in  the  form  of 
an  increase  of  rent,  one  penny  per  barrel  for  every  barrel 
of  lime  which  they  take.  This  is  percentage  with  a venge- 
ance. We  see  a placard  posted  up  in  Tralee  at  present 
announcing  that  Mr.  J.  T.  Trench,  agent  to  the  Marquis,  is 
to  deliver  a Gospel  Address  in  the  Protestant  Hall  this 
evening.  Now,  it  seems  to  us  that  Mr.  Trench  would  be 
doing  a great  deal  of  Scriptural  good  if  he  gave  the  Marquis 
(and  himself)  a lecture  on  the  Scriptural  condemnation  of 
usury,  such  as  we  have  described.” 

But,  lest  it  should  be  supposed  that  this 
peculiar  style  of  giving  charitable  employment 
in  the  Famine  was  confined  to  Kerry,  I add  the 
following,  which  was  published  in  the  Cork 
Examiner.  I had  also  a private  communication 
from  Mr.  Irwin  on  the  subject : — 

“Strand  House,  Clonakilty, 

“ August  24 th9  1880. 

“ Dear  Sir, — A few  days  ago  I was  shown  a printed 
document,  the  copy  of  which  I annex,  viz.  : — 

“ ‘ Land  Improvement. — I hereby  agree  that  I will  pay 
Arthur  H.  Smith  Barry  Esq.,  interest  at  the  rate  of  £$  8s.  6d. 
per  cent,  on  any  sum  expended  by  him  in  drainage  effected 

on  my  holding  in ; such  interest  to  be  added  to  my 

rent  from  the  1st  day  of  May,  1882,  and  to  be  recoverable 
as  part  of  it,  and  in  same  manner  and  with  same  powers  of 
recovery ; and  I also  admit  that  I shall  have  no  claim  against 
said  landlord  or  his  successors  in  respect  to  the  principal 
sum  expended  by  him  in  such  improvements,  or  any  claim 
in  respect  to  them  under  the  Landlord  and  Tenant  Act, 


I §2 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


1870,  simply  undertaking  to  pay  interest  at  the  rate  of 
£z  8s.  6d.  per  cent,  on  the  outlay. 

“ ‘ Dated  this day  of t8 

“ ‘ Signed, . 

“ ‘ Witness,  . 

‘“The  interest  to  be  payable  for  thirty-five  years,  from 
1 st  May.  1882.’ 

“Leaving  you,  sir,  to  comment  on  the  above  precious 
document, 

“ I beg  to  remain, 

“Your  very  obedient  servant, 

“T.  W.  Irwin.” 

It  was  proved  in  evidence  before  the  present 
Land  Commission,  that  the  Earl  of  Cork  inserts 
a clause  in  his  leases  depriving  his  tenants  of 
compensation  under  the  Land  Bill.  But  there 
is  a lower  depth. 

If  men  like  Mr.  Smith  Barry  and  Lord  Cork, 
and  Lord  Lansdowne,  and  The  M‘Gillicuddy, 
deprive  their  tenants — “ the  mere  Irish,” — of 
the  benefit  of  English  law,  they  do  not  require 
“ duty  work  and  other  “ straws  ” which  add  so 
heavily  to  the  burthen  of  the  unhappy  and 
much  maligned  Irish  tenant. 

Again,  I quote  from  undisputed  and  public 
documents. 

The  following  letter  was  published  in  the 
Cork  Examiner , in  September,  (1880)  : — 


Social  Relations. 


183 


“THE  BAWNMORE  EVICTION. 

“to  the  editor  of  the  cork  examiner. 

“ Dear  Sir, — There  are  some  facts  in  connection  with  the 
above  case  of  eviction  that  have  not  yet  been  brought  to 
light,  and  as  they  may  not  come  under  the  notice  of  the 
Land  Commission,  I ask  you  to  permit  me  to  place  them 
before  the  public  through  the  medium  of  your  columns.  I 
do  so,  thinking  that  there  are  many  cases  as  hard  and  cruel 
which  will  never  be  known  to  any  Commission,  or  to  the 
community  at  large,  but  which,  on  this  very  account,  have 
intensified  the  hostility  of  the  farming  classes  to  its  present 
point  against  the  system  under  which  they  have  suffered  so 
patiently  and  so  long. 

“The  holding  in  question  is  nine  acres  in  extent,  and  is 
situated  in  the  Townland  of  Bawnmore,  which  is  the  highest 
and  hardest  soil  in  the  Parish  of  Kanturk.  Cussen,  the  elder, 
father  of  the  evicted  tenant,  came  into  possession  of  the  farm 
forty-eight  years  ago,  paying  at  that  time  ^17  fine,  and  a rent 
of  30s.  an  acre,  exactly  50  per  cent,  over  Griffith’s  valuation. 
In  addition  to  this,  he  was  obliged  to  supply  once  every 
two  years  one  cwt.  of  pork  or  bacon  to  the  landlord,  VI  r. 
Tom  Leader,  and  to  deposit,  carriage  free,  the  said  supply 
at  the  landlord’s  residence,  some  fifty  miles  away  from  the 
hill  of  Bawnmore.  This  continued  to  be  exacted  till  the 
old  landlord’s  death,  and  with  such  strictness  was  the  flesh 
insisted  on,  that  an  equivalent  in  money  would  not  be  re- 
ceived in  its  stead.  Master  and  tenant  passed  to  their  rest, 
and  the  evicted  man,  young  Cussen,  came  into  possession 
and  struggled  hard  for  many  years  to  pay  his  rent  and 
support  his  aged  mother  on  the  holding.  The  past  severe 
seasons  crushed  them.  They  could  make  nothing,  beyond  a 
miserable  existence,  from  the  land,  and  though  the  present 
proprietor  made  the  very  magnificent  reduction  of  five  per 


184 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


cent,  on  his  property  last  winter,  Cussen  was  exempted  from 
the  provisions  of  this  gracious  act,  inasmuch  as  he  was  in 
arrears  as  to  rent.  A month  or  six  weeks  ago  the  law  was  put 
in  force  against  him,  and  this  was  done  in  a very  unusral 
form.  The  room  where  the  old  mother  had  lived  for  han 
a century  was  levelled,  and  she  and  her  son  were  obliged 
to  rest  in  a dilapidated  barn,  the  roof  of  which  is  almost 
swept  away  by  the  storms  that  rage  round  that  elevated  and 
highly-rented  region.  The  force  of  public  opinion  has  now 
left  the  land  without  a tenant,  and  in  that  condition  it  is 
likely  to  remain  till  some  consideration  is  shown  to  the 
family  who  occupied  it  for  fifty  years,  and  on  whose  labours 
and  bacon  the  proprietors  so  long  lived  and  fattened. 

“I  remain,  yours  faithfully, 

“ Spectator.” 

As  the  name  of  Mr.  Hussey  has  been  much 
before  the  public  as  a land  agent,  and  as  he  has 
obtained  a ready  hearing  in  the  Times , I append 
a short  article  from  the  Freejnaris  Journal , 
which  will  show  that  his  cause  is  not  always  as 
just  as  he  would  wish  to  make  it  appear  : — 

“ The  causes  which  have  led  up  the  present  crisis  in  the 
country  are  well  illustrated  in  a case  which  came  before  the 
County  Court  Judge  of  West  Cork  on  Tuesday  last.  The 
case  was  one  of  those  to  which  allusion  was  made  by  Mr. 
Healy  in  his  speech  at  Bantry,  for  which  he  has  been  pro- 
secuted. The  parties  to  it  were  two  farmers  named  Tobin 
and  Hennegan,  the  plaintiffs,  and  the  Earl  of  Kenmare,  the 
defendant.  The  facts  of  the  case  were  briefly  these — that 
Tobin  took  a farm  from  the  Earl  of  Kenmare  as  far  back  as 


Social  Relatio?is. 


1848,  at  ^36  a year.  The  farm  was  subsequently  divided 
with  a man  named  Sullivan,  each  party  paying  half  the  rent. 
The  Earl  of  Kenmare  some  time  ago  offered  a lease  of  the 
farm  for  a fine  of  ,£90,  and  Tobin  sent  in  a cheque  for  the 
amount.  Meanwhile,  however,  a change  had  taken  place  in 
the  agency.  Mr.  Hussey  was  appointed  to  the  office,  and 
he  induced  Tobin  to  take  back  his  money  and  sign  a release. 
When  this  was  done  Tcbin  was  asked  to  pay  an  increased 
rent,  and,  failing  to  do  so,  was  evicted.  The  other  tenant, 
Sullivan,  did  not  sign  the  release,  and  was  therefore  able  to 
hold  possession.  Hennegan’s  share  in  the  transaction  was 
not  very  clear.  The  defence  was  that  the  farm  was  originally 
underlet,  and  that  Tobin  would  have  been  permitted  to  sell 
his  interest  if  he  had  agreed  to  give  back  a sum  which  it 
was  said  he  had  borrowed  from  Sullivan  to  pay  the  fine 
asked  in  consideration  of  the  lease.  After  Tobin  was 
evicted  the  farm  was  let  at  ^30  a year,  and  a fine  of  ,£250 
paid.  This  shows  how  eager  was  the  competition  for  land  at 
the  time.  The  judge  did  not  see  any  justification  for  the 
course  pursued  towards  Tobin  in  these  circumstances.  It 
was  plainly  a case  of  capricious  eviction,  and  he  regretted 
that  he  could  not,  under  the  Act,  award  a larger  amount  of 
compensation  than  he  did.  He  gave  a decree  for  the  maxi- 
mum amount  under  the  scale — five  years’— less  a year’s  rent 
due  at  the  time  of  the  ejectment.” 

It  would  be  well  if  those  who  are  now 
struggling  so  fiercely  for  a retention  of  the 
present  Land  Law  on  the  statute  books  would 
ponder  over  these  facts.  Let  them  remember 
that  the  state  of  things  now  revealed  is  going 
on  over  hundreds  of  estates  all  over  Ireland, 
and  they  can  hardly  wonder  that  the  Land 


1 86  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

Question  has  at  last  reached  a dangerous 
crisis.1 

If  I go  into  this  subject  at  some  length,  it  is 
because  I am  convinced  it  is  one  of  the  greatest 
importance. 

There  is  too  general  an  impression  that  the 
whole  cause  of  Irish  discontent  is  Irish  laziness. 
That  even  if  rents  are  a little  high,  that  they 
could  be  paid  by  excessive  industry  and  thrift. 
But  the  English  people  have  yet  to  learn  that 
rents  are  more  than  excessive,  that  they  are  too 
often  ruinous ; and  they  have  to  learn  what  I 
have  stated  above,  that  there  is  a system  of 
deliberately  taking  advantage  of  the  tenant  at 
every  turn,  of  putting  every  burthen  on  him, 
and  of  even  depriving  him  of  his  absolute  legal 
rights. 

Here  is  another  evidence  of  this  evil  and 
miserable  system,  on  high  and  important  au- 
thority. 

Mr.  H.  C.  Marmion,  of  Skibbereen,  is  a land 
agent,  a landlord,  and  a tenant  farmer  ; hence,  he 
is  in  a position  peculiarly  competent  to  form  an 
opinion  on  these  vexed  questions.  I ask  a 


i The  Rey.  P.  Hill,  P.  P.,  Skibbereen,  giving  evidence  before  the  Land 
Commission  in  Cork,  said:  “Judges  were  disposed  to  take  a landlord’s 
view  in  the  administration  of  the  land  laws. — November,  (1880). 


Social  Relations. 


187 


very  careful  consideration  of  his  evidence,  given 
before  the  Land  Commission,  at  Skibbereen, 
in  November  (1880. 

“ He  handed  in  the  following  statement  in  evidence  : — I 
hereby  declare  that  the  tenant  farmers  never  will  be  happy, 
prosperous,  and  contented  until  they  are  secured  in  their 
farms  at  fair  rents,  and  protected  from  capricious  evictions. 

I am  confirmed  in  this  opinion  by  my  own  experience, 
having  given  on  the  Castletownsend  estate  300  leases  in 
the  year  1869  ; the  term  of  each  farming  lease  being  61 
years,  and  the  building  leases  300  years.  Those  leases  were 
given  at  an  average  of  about  15  per  cent,  over  the  Poor  Law 
Valuation.  During  the  following  five  years  I believe  more 
improvements  were  made  than  for  a half  century  previously, 
and  I felt  no  difficulty  in  collecting  the  rental.  I believe, 
also,  that  so  far  from  those  leases  damaging  the  landlord’s 
interest,  that  the  result  has  been  exactly  the  contrary.  I 
take  the  Castletownsend  estate  as  my  model,  having  had  for 
several  years  unlimited  control  in  its  management,  for  which 
I received  the  warm  acknowledgments  of  the  then  owner. 
When  I contrast  the  state  of  the  tenantry  on  this  estate  with 
others  where  rents  have  been  repeatedly  raised,  and  the 
tenants  charged  for  their  own  improvements,  the  conse- 
quences are  apparent — the  people  are  poorer,  discontented, 
and  cease  to  be  industrious.  Another  fruitful  source  of 
discontent  is  the  utter  want  of  sympathy  which  the  landlord 
class,  as  a body,  entertain  towards  their  tenantry,  particu- 
larly during  the  last  three  disastrous  years.  With  very  few 
exceptions,  the  landlord  is  scarcely  ever  seen  upon  the  lands, 
and,  save  when  the  tenant  is  called  upon  to  pay  his  rent,  he 
is  only  known  to  the  landlord  by  name,  and  is  never  the 
recipient  of  any  mark  of  consideration  at  his  landlord’s 


1 88 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


hands.  This  estrangement  produces  a feeling  of  degrada- 
tion and  disgust,  and  leaves  the  tenant  to  conclude  (oft’  too 
truly)  that  his  landlord  favours  more  his  domestic  animals. 
Another  source  of  discontent  is  what  is  called  the  ‘ rule  of 
the  estate.’  That  rule  is  necessarily  arbitrary,  often  capri- 
cious, and  frequently  unjust.  I know  of  two  brothers  named 
Sullivan  (Cumba)  who  purchased  from  a needy  neighbour 
his  holding,  for  £30.  They  would  not  be  recognised  as 
tenants,  though  perfectly  solvent  and  exceedingly  industrious» 
and  they  lost  their  money.  On  the  same  estate,  some 
farms,  when  they  get  into  the  landlord’s  hands,  are  let  by 
auction  for  grazing  plots  annually.  This  is  a very  mis- 
chievous practice,  and  breeds  discontent.  To  show  you  the 
extent  to  which  rack-renting  is  carried  upon  some  estates, 
and  the  excessive  and  cruel  means  adopted  to  enforce  it,  I 
will  give  an  instance  or  two.  I hand  you  a lease  called 
‘Richard  J.  Campion’s  compound  form.’  Notwithstanding 
the  sounding  name,  the  rent  is  anything  but  agreeable  to 
the  poor,  struggling  tenant.  The  rent  is  ^23,  the  Poor-law 
valuation,  £9  10s.  I know  another  holding,  held  under 
the  same  agent’s  (R.  J.  Campion’s)  management,  where  the 
rent  was  fi6  16s.  Mr.  Campion  sent  the  tenant  a lease  to 
execute,  raising  the  rent  to  ^30.  The  tenant  refused  and 
protested,  and  what  was  Mr.  Campion’s  written  reply  ? 
That,  if  the  lease  was  not  executed  before  ten  o’clock  next 
day,  the  rent  would  be  raised  to  ^40.  I respectfully  invite 
your  perusal  of  some  of  the  clauses  of  this  lease.  1 know 
other  estates  where  the  rent  is  double  the  valuation  • 
without  compulsory  powers  for  valuation,  I do  not  see  a 
remedy  for  this  state  of  things.  I am  of  opinion  that  fair 
rents  and  fixity  of  tenure,  with  free  right  of  sale  to  a solvent 
successor,  would  make  the  Irish  tenantry  loyal,  industrious, 
peaceable  and  happy.  I have  raised  in  the  local  banks 
upwards  of  100,000  for  tenants,  and  I have  had  but  three 


Social  Relations, 


189 


defaulters,  one  of  whom  is  a magistrate  for  the  county. 
There  are  little  or  no  improvements  made  where  the 
tenant  holds  from  year  to  year.  Emigration  has  drained 
the  country  of  its  best  blood.  While  condemning  bad 
landlords,  I am  happy  to  say  I know  several  good  ones. 
Drainage  and  improving  the  breeds  of  cattle  should  be 
encouraged.  Conciliation,  not  coercion,  should  be  the 
order  of  the  day.” 

There  is  one  feature  noted  in  this  very  clear 
statement  on  the  social  relations  between  land- 
lord and  tenant  which  has,  I think,  it  may  safely 
be  said,  received  no  consideration ; and  it  is  one 
bearing  seriously  on  the  whole  state  of  Ireland. 
Mr.  Marriner  says,  “ A fruitful  source  of  discon- 
tent is  the  utter  want  of  sympathy  which  the 
landlord  class  as  a body  entertain  towards  the 
tenantry.”  The  whole  of  this  paragraph  given 
above  demands  a very  thoughtful  considera- 
tion. 

There  is  a common,  and  not  unnatural,  idea 
in  England,  that  if  a man  is  evicted  for  non-pay- 
ment of  rent,  the  eviction  must  be  a just  one. 
In  Mr.  Russell’s  letters  to  the  Daily  Telegraph 
he  further  mentions  a case  of  eviction  under 
circumstances  of  singular  oppression  ; and  yet 
in  the  very  next  issue  of  that  paper  his  state- 
ment was  attacked  on  the  ground  that  an  evic- 

o 

tion  for  rent  must  be  a thing  of  the  past. 

It  is  this  terrible  ignorance  about  Irish  affairs 


igO  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated » 

which  leads  English  people  so  seriously  astray. 
Not  unnaturally,  they  consider  “that  a man,” 
as  they  say,  “ ought  to  pay  his  rent.”  Certainly, 
he  ought — if  he  could.  The  non-payment  of 
rent  is  looked  upon  naturally  as  the  repudia- 
tion of,  or  failure  to  meet,  any  ordinary  debt 
would  be.  But  the  circumstances  are  wholly 
different  in  Ireland.  We  have  said — it  has 
been  said  by  far  higher  authority  than  ours — 
that  there  is  no  freedom  of  contract  in  Ireland. 

I think  it  may  be  said,  with  little  exaggeration, 
that  the  freedom  of  contract  between  landlord 
and  tenant  in  Ireland  is  like  the  freedom  of 
contract  between  a highwayman  and  his  victim ; 
the  only  difference  being  the  elevated  social 
rank  of  the  landlord,  and  the  public  protection 
and  approbation  which  his  threatening  demands 
receive. 

The  highwayman  demands  your  money  or 
your  life.  There  is  a choice,  certainly,  but  the 
choice  is  not  very  desirable.  In  Ireland,  too 
often,  the  landlord  demands  of  his  victim  his 
money — his  all — or  his  life,  also.  For,  if  a man 
has  no  choice  left  him  except  eviction,  or  a rent 
which  will  not  enable  him  to  live  in  common 
decency,  he  must  sacrifice  what  is  dearer  than 
life. 

That  such  is  the  case  in  Ireland  is  but  too 


Social  Relations. 


191 

well  known,  for  it  is  simply  an  every-day  occur- 
rence. In  England,  unhappily,  it  will  not  be 
believed  that  noblemen  and  gentlemen  would 
act  thus.  But  the  fact  is  none  the  less  true, 
because  it  is  not  credited.  At  the  same  sit- 
ting of  the  Commission,  from  which  we  quoted 
evidence  above  : — 

“ Mr.  Tarr  was  examined,  and  gave  evidence  with  respect 
to  his  own  eviction  from  a large  farm  held  under  Lord 
Middleton.  The  farm  contained  417  acres,  but  a large  quan* 
tity  of  it  was  under  timber,  and  of  no  use  to  him.  The  rent 
when  he  took  the  farm  was  ^350,  but  when  the  lease  lapsed 
it  was  raised  to  ^475,  the  valuation  being  ^405.  He  felt 
the  farm  would  not  pay  such  a rent.  Then,  why  did  you 
take  the  farm  ? I had  a young  family,  and  I did  not  wish 
to  be  disturbed,  so  I agreed  to  the  terms.  I complained  at 
the  time,  but  I thought  if  the  times  were  good,  I might  be 
able  to  pay  the  rent.  The  seasons  having  proved  the 
reverse,  I was  not  able  to  pay  a year  and  a-half’ s rent ; I 
was  also  made  a bankrupt  of,  in  consequence  of  a statement 
made  to  the  bank  that  my  creditors  were  to  look  for  com- 
pensation ; the  landlord  made  a counter  claim  against  them 
for  dilapidation.” 

Here  is  a plain  indisputable  case.  Mr.  Tarr 
had  the  traveller’s  choice  from  the  highwayman. 
No  doubt,  those  Irish  tenants  who  hold  land,  or 
rather  who  try  to  keep  their  homes  on  such 
conditions,  are  to  be  blamed.  But  who  shall 
apportion  the  blame  between  the  tempter  and 
the  tempted  ? 


jg2 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


And  it  is  obvious  that  this  system  of  perpe- 
tually raising  rent  must  cause  general  bank- 
ruptcy, misery,  and  distress. 

No  ; what  is  needed  in  Ireland  is  not  coercion 
laws  for  these  unhappy  tenants  at  will,  but 
rather  protection  laws  both  for  them  and  for 
their  landlords,  for  in  truth  these  same  landlords 
need  the  protection  of  common  law,  since  they 
will  not  use  the  protection  of  common  sense,  to 
win  them  from  the  inevitable  evils  of  their  own 
avarice.  And  let  it  be  remembered  that  it  is 
not  themselves  or  Ireland  alone  which  is  injured 
by  this  unhappy  system ; England  will  and 
must  inevitably  suffer  bitterly  for  it  in  the  end. 

Here  are  the  words  of  an  Irish  gentleman,  a 
magistrate  and  a Protestant,  words  which  Eng- 
lish gentlemen  would  do  well  to  consider  very 
seriously.  Writing  to  the  Freemans  Journal , 
Nov.  ioth,  1880,  he  says  : — 

“ I beg  to  tell  the  Express  that  the  class  of  Irishmen  to 
which  I belong  is  the  class  who  seek  to  stay  the  evictor’s 
hand,  to  prevent  the  sad  and  heart-rending  scenes  of  exter 
mination  and  depopulation.  Witnessing  the  ruthless  ex- 
pulsion not  of  tens,  but  of  hundreds,  of  families  turned  out 
of  house  and  home,  no  house  or  farm  to  get,  and  no  trade 
or  profession  to  turn  to  whereby  to  earn  a livelihood  for 
their  families,  no  prospect  but  the  poorhouse — it  was  witness- 
ing those  scenes  that  led  me  to  raise  my  voice  against  evic- 
tion. I sat  on  the  bedside  of  an  exterminator  half  an  hour 


Social  Relations . 


193 


after  his  back  was  plough  ed  up  by  the  slugs  of  the  assassin. 
There  was  no  Land  League  then.  I said  to  him,  “ The 
law  ought  not  leave  you  the  power  of  endangering  your  own 
life.’  He  said  the  land  was  his  own  ; could  he  not  dig  it 
into  the  sea  if  he  liked  ? That  is  the  doctrine  of  the  class, 
I won’t  say  of  Irishmen,  but  of  men  holding  land  in  Ireland 
represented  by  the  Express.  I never  belonged  to  them.  I 
belong  to  a class  who  grieve  to  see  their  countrymen  in  a 
state  of  chronic  starvation,  who  grieve  to  see  the  hat  going 
round  the  world  to  save  them  from  starvation,  who  grieve  to 
see  a peasantry  living  on  the  most  fertile  lands,  their  ex- 
istence depending  on  the  absence  of  an  extra  summer 
shower  or  autumn  flood,  without  one  accumulated  meal  to 
fall  back  upon. 

“ I have  had  opportunities  of  knowing  this  fact  in  this,  the 
Athlone  Union,  of  which  I have  the  honour  of  being  vice- 
chairman.  On  one  day  in  February  last  I allocated  charit- 
able funds  to  feed  eight  thousand  four  hundred  and  twenty 
people.  If  allying  myself  with  a party  who  endeavour  to 
have  the  laws  that  we  believe  have  brought  the  peasantry  to 
that  miserable  condition  changed,  the  statute  laws  of  eviction 
done  away  with,  thereby  fixing  the  tenant  while  paying  a 
fair  rent  in  the  land,  makes  me  unworthy  of  the  class  the 
Express  represents,  I am  quite  content,  but  I must  repudiate 
the  charge  of  being  a deserter  from  the  ranks  in  which  I 
never  served,  and  never  shall,  while  they  maintain  the  right 
of  any  man  to  exterminate  and  depopulate  the  country. 

“As  to  the  last  charge  of  being  unworthy  of  the  creed  I 
profess.  That  creed  is  Protestant  Christianity.  That  creed 
teaches  me  to  do  good,  even  on  the  Sabbath  ; and  I believe 
to  raise  my  voice  on  the  Sabbath  against  the  extermination 
of  the  Almighty’s  people  is  as  much,  if  not  more,  in  con- 
formity with  His  wishes  as  to  pull  my  ox  or  my  ass  out  of 
the  ditch  on  His  holy  day.  Now,  repudiating  the  charge  of 

N 


194  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

Communism,  and  apologising  for  trespassing  on  your 
columns,  I will  only  say  I think  my  taking  the  chair  was  of 
use  to  our  cause,  and  notwithstanding  the  severe  castigation 
of  the  Express,  I shall  be  prepared  to  fill  the  same  position 
if  required  so  long  as  it  is  legal  to  do  so. — Dear  sir,  truly 
yours, 

“John  Talbot  D’Arcy,  Major.” 

Some  one  has  said  with  equal  wit  and  truth 
that  the  Times  holds  a brief  for  Irish  land- 
lords. If  this  is  so,  it  explains  why  the  letters 
of  Mr.  Charles  Russell,  Q.C.,  were  refused  in- 
sertion in  that  paper  at  the  last  moment,  and 
why  no  letters  are  admitted  in  that  paper  ex- 
cept such  as  defend  the  peculiar  views  of 
government  and  political  economy  held  by  these 
gentlemen.  If  it  is  true  that  Mr.  Russell’s 
calm,  moderate  statements,  made  from  careful 
and  patient  personal  investigation,  were  refused 
a place  in  that  paper,  which  is  supposed  to  re- 
present English  opinion,  how  lamentable  for  the 
future  of  England. 

Men  who  do  not  wish  to  have  the  truth  told 
are  either  fools  or  knaves.  Men  who  will  not 
hear  the  truth  are  incapable  of  governing,  and 
proclaim  to  the  world  their  own  incapacity. 

But  Major  D’Arcy  is  not  the  only  Protestant 
Irish  landlord  who  has  spoken  out  boldly  for 
truth  and  justice.  The  name  of  Mr.  Villiers 


Social  Relations . 


195 


Stuart,  M.  P.,  is  too  well  known  for  high  in- 
tegrity to  need  recommendation  here,  and  he  is 
no  Land  Leaguer  or  Home  Ruler.  This  is  his 
opinion,  given  before  the  Land  Commission,  of 
the  needs  and  wrongs  of  Ireland  : — 

“Is  there  much  land  still  waste  which  is  capable  of  profit- 
able reclamation?  Yes;  thousands  of  acres  on  my  estate 
and  in  my  neighbourhood  ; but  much  of  this  is  on  entailed 
properties,  and  tenants  for  life  will  not  spend  their  money  in 
reclamation  unless  the  money  could  be  borrowed  at  a low 
rate  of  interest,  and  charged  on  the  estate.  The  Board  of 
Works  rate  is  too  high — five  per  cent,  for  life ; three  per 
cent,  interest  and  one  per  cent,  sinking  fund,  with  two  years’ 
grace,  before  collection  of  interest  and  principal  began, 
would  induce  many  proprietors  to  reclaim  who  are  now 
deterred  from  doing  so.  My  experience  in  the  reclamation 
of  mountain  land  is  that,  on  an  average,  it  may  be  reclaimed 
and  put  into  cultivation  for  ^15  per  acre,  and  when  re- 
claimed it  will  be  worth  ten  or  twelve  shillings  an  acre,  per 
annum,  i.e.,  that  will  be  the  letting  value,  but  not  the  entire 
gain  to  the  nation,  because  to  the  letting  value  must  be 
added  the  profit  of  the  tenant  and  the  addition  to  the  food 
producing  powers  of  the  country  and  the  general  develop- 
ment of  its  resources. 

“ I consider  a Land  Board  (armed  with  ample  power  to 
regulate  all  matters  relating  to  land  tenure,  to  decide  dis- 
puted valuations,  and  to  serve  as  a Court  of  Appeal,  also 
to  carry  out  any  provisions  that  may  be  enacted  against  rack- 
renting,  either  by  landlords  or  middlemen),  to  be  a very 
necessary  institution,.  I consider  the  suppression  of  rack- 
renting  to  be  one  of  the  most  vital  points  in  the  problem  of 
land  tenure  reform.  The  argument  that  neither  occupying 


ig6  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

proprietorship,  under  the  Bright  Clauses,  nor  limited  leases 
at  rents  liable  to  be  raised  have  hitherto  been  found  to  pro- 
mote improvements  by  tenants  to  the  extent  expected,  does 
not  apply  to  experiments  upon  fairer  conditions. 

“ The  disappointment,  in  the  first  place,  has  been  caused 
by  the  tenant  being  unduly  hampered  by  too  onerous  con- 
ditions ; in  the  second  by  the  fear  of  improvements,  leading 
ultimately  to  a raising  of  the  rent.  Leases  practically  per- 
petual, at  fixed  and  fair  rents  and  on  easy  conditions,  which 
shall  not  cripple  the  tenant  by  absorbing  the  capital  that 
ought  to  go  to  the  improvement  and  development  of  his 
farm,  and  make  him  the  slave  of  banks  and  money-lenders, 
by  compelling  him  to  borrow  at  high  interest — such  leases 
have  never  yet  been  tried,  and,  if  tried,  I feel  convinced  the 
results  will  not  disappoint  our  expectations,  but  will  lead  to 
contentment  and  an  indisposition  for  change,  and  to  an  im- 
portant development  of  the  industrial  resources  of  Ireland.” 


The  English  public  have  heard  a great  deal 
of  Captain  Boycott ; they  have  sympathized 
deeply  with  him  ; they  have  pictured  him  to 
themselves  as  a perhaps  strict  but  just  man, 
only  desiring  to  get  his  master’s  rents.  But 
have  they  heard,  or  do  they  care  to  hear,  the 
other  side  ! The  Thnes  of  Nov  1880 tells  it,  and 
for  once  copies  from  the  Freemans  Journal  the 
true  tale  of  a most  miserable  case. 

“A  special  correspondent  of  the  Freeman  gives  the  popular 
version  of  the  case  of  Captain  Boycott  and  the  causes  of  the 
enmity  against  him.  He  states  that  Captain  Boycott  is 
brave  to  a fault  and  is  also  eccentric.  He  says  his  rules  in 


Social  Relations. 


197 


his  dealings  with  the  labourers  were  punctilious  to  a harsh 
and  Quixotic  degree.  The  labourers  state  that,  instead  of 
summoning  them,  he  used  to  fine  them  himself  one  penny  a 
fowl  for  every  hen  that  trespassed  on  his  grass  farm ; that  a 
man  was  fined  if  he  left  a spade  or  shovel  in  the  wrong  place  i 
fined  if  he  left  a gate  open ; fined  if  he  took  a short  cut 
across  a field  ; fined  if  he  was  two  minutes  behind  the  ring 
of  the  bell,  with  the  result  that  a man  employed  at  nine 
shillings  a week  sometimes  found  himself  only  entitled  to 
seven  shillings  after  his  week’s  labour.  His  dogmatic  and 
domineering  tone  with  the  people  appears  to  have  been 
another  prolific  cause  of  enmity  against  him.  ‘ He  treated 
his  cattle  better  than  he  did  us,’  said  one  of  the  tenants ; 
‘ he  never  had  anything  but  a curse  for  us.’  A certain  amount 
of  gratuitous  ‘ duty  work,’  was  done  upon  his  farm  by  the 
tenants  for  some  time  after  his  appointment  as  agent.  His 
unpopularity  led  to  a refusal  to  continue  the  duty  work  any 
longer.  The  tenants  suspect  (and,  of  course,  it  can  be  only 
suspicion)  that  this  had  something  to  do  with  what  they 
conceive  to  be  his  steady  hostility  to  their  interests  with  the 
landlord.  Lord  Erne  has  an  excellent  reputation  as  a land 
lord.  These  lands  are  let,  for  the  most  part,  little  above  the 
Poor  Law  Valuation,  and,  unless  in  years  of  grievous  pres- 
sure, nobody  grumbled  about  paying  their  rents  ; but,  since 
the  old  Earl  has,  as  they  conceive,  given  up  the  control  to 
his  son,  Viscount  Crichton  and  his  agent,  they  state  that 
they  have  been  subjected  to  a series  of  petty  deprivations 
and  humiliations,  which  appear  to  have  maddened  them 
without  enriching  the  landlord.  For  example,  prizes  were 
formerly  offered  by  the  landlords  for  the  best  crops  and  the 
tidiest  houses.  These  have  been  discontinued  ; but  the  chief 
immediate  motive  of  the  present  attitude  of  the  tenants  is 
resentment  against  Captain  Boycott,  for  having,  in  September 
last,  attempted  to  serve  eighteen  processes  of  ejectment 


198 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


against  tenants  who,  according  to  their  allegation,  owed  but 
six  months’  rent  with  the  hanging  gale.  The  tenants  had 
accepted  the  ten  per  cent,  abatement  offered  last  year,  and 
had  paid  their  rents,  but  they  refused  to  pay  this  year’s  half 
gale  without  an  abatement  of  twenty-five  per  cent.  The 
gale  was  no  sooner  due  they  say,  than  a process-server  was 
sent  round.  He  was  surrounded,  with  his  police  escort,  by 
a dangerous  crowd,  and  was  forced  to  fly  for  his  life  after 
serving  three  of  the  processes.  Decrees  were  duly  obtained 
against  the  three  persons  who  were  served.  A memorial 
signed  by  all  the  tenants,  who  number  only  thirty-eight,  was 
thereupon  presented  to  Lord  Erne,  reciting  their  grievances 
against  Captain  Boycott,  appealing  to  the  old  traditions  of 
the  Erne  family  for  considerate  landlordism,  and  intimating 
in  plain  terms  that,  while  they  were  perfectly  willing  to 
pay  their  rents,  with  any  abatement  decided  upon  by 
Lord  Erne,  they  had  come  to  the  conclusion  never  again 
to  work  for  or  hold  communication  with  his  present 
agent.  The  answer  was  a firm  refusal  from  Lord  Erne 
to  change  his  agent  at  their  dictation.  The  tenants 
forwarded  a reply  in  which  they  reminded  his  lordship  that 
dire  necessity  alone  could  compel  Irish  tenants  to  set  them- 
selves against  the  agent  of  a non-resident  landlord,  to  whose 
tender  mercies  they  were  left.  They  repeated  firmly  their 
determination  to  hold  no  further  relations  with  Captain 
Boycott,  and  their  readiness  to  pay  their  rents  to  any  other 
person  his  lordship  might  appoint.  At  the  same  time  they 
respectfully  appealed  to  him  to  shield  them  from  the  expense 
of  the  policemen  with  which  the  neighbourhood  was  flooded, 
reminding  him  that  he  had  a remedy  in  his  own  hands 
which  would  restore  good  feeling  and  peace  to  the  estate. 
Lord  Erne  ended  the  correspondence  by  a curt  note  stating 
that  he  had  no  intention  whatever  of  changing  his  agent, 
and  that  if  they  would  not  pay  theirrents  to  Captain  Boycott 


Social  Relations . 


199 


they  might  take  the  consequences.  I he  policy  of  isolation 
was  then  entered  upon.  It  is  evident  from  the  above 
statement  that  there  has  been  some  ill-adviser  behind  the 
scene,  and  that  there  is  more  of  obstinate  pride  and  personal 
pique  than  of  any  real  grievance  at  the  root  of  the  unfor- 
tunate quarrel.” 

I may  mention  here  an  amusing  instance  of 
the  land  agent  style  of  government.  A land 
agent  who  was  exceedingly  fond  of  bicycling, 
ventured  one  day  into  the  middle  of  an  unfor- 
tunate flock  of  geese  on  a remote  country  road. 
In  England  if  any  legal  action  had  been  taken 
for  such  a trifling  matter  he  would  probably 
have  been  fined  for  furious  driving  ; but  as  it 
was  in  Ireland,  and  as  he  was  both  land  agent 
and  justice  of  the  peace,  he  fined  the  geese,  or 
at  least  their  owners. 

No  doubt  there  are  a few  persons  in  England, 
who  either  from  political  opinions  or  from  sheer 
prejudice,  are  unwilling  to  believe  the  truth 
where  Ireland  is  concerned.  But  I will  not  do  the 
readers  of  this  work  the  injustice  to  suppose  that 
they  belong  to  this  class.  It  would  be  an  injus- 
tice to  their  intellect,  and  would  suppose  them 
incapable  of  reasoning;  it  would  be  an  injustice 
to  their  moral  sense,  and  suppose  them  incap- 
able of  discerning  between  truth  and  falsehood. 

I would  ask,  then,  a careful  consideration  of 


200  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

the  above  paragraph  copied  from  the  Times. 
Elsewhere  I had  something  to  say  of  the  action 
of  land  agents  as  magistrates.  I do  not  know 
whether  Captain  Boycott  is  or  is  not  a magis- 
trate, but  let  it  be  observed  that  he  takes  the 
law  into  his  own  hands.  Again  let  me  implore 
English  people  to  consider  the  grave  injustice 
to  themselves  which  results  from  all  this.  Ire- 
land is  supposed  to  be  governed  by  English  law. 
It  cannot  be  repeated  too  often  that  on  the  very 
matters  which  most  closely  and  intimately  con- 
cern the  welfare  of  the  people,  Ireland  is  not 
governed  by  English  law.  It  is  governed  by 
the  caprice — alas  ! too  often  by  the  greed  and 
the  cruelty — of  a class  of  men  “ who  treat  their 
cattle  better  than  their  tenants.” 

And  this  is  utterly  unknown  in  England.  If 
it  were  once  known,  if  it  were  once  realised, 
there  would  be,  as  I have  said,  a cry  of  indigna- 
tion from  end  to  end  of  the  land,  and  such 
barbarity  would  be  no  longer  tolerated. 

No,  it  is  not  excessive  and  usurious  rents 
alone  which  have  caused  all  this  misery  in  Ire- 
land. It  is  little  acts  of  tyranny  ; some  might  call 
them  great.  It  is  the  burdens  added  to  burdens 
already  too  oppressive.  It  is  this  “ duty  work,” 
often  demanded  at  the  very  moment  that  the 
unhappy  tenant  should  be  raising  his  own  crops 


Social  Relations. 


201 


to  pay  the  oppressive  rent  of  the  very  landlord 
who,  in  addition  to  the  rent,  demands  the  sweat 
of  the  brow  of  his  unhappy  dependents,  who 
require  what  even  Pharaoh’s  task-master  might 
have  blushed  to  demand. 

I conclude  with  the  account  of  the  special 
correspondent  of  the  Daily  Telegraph , Novem- 
ber 14,  1880  : — 

“The  cabins  of  the  peasantry  seemed  to  be  about  the 
very  worst  dwellings  for  human  beings  I had  ever  viewed. 
There  was  scarcely  a living  creature  about  as  the  car  sped 
on,  the  horse  being  urged  forward  with  a continual  storm  of 
blows  and  remonstrances.  I noted  that  many  of  the  cot- 
tages I passed  boasted  no  windows,  that  they  all  had  mud 
floors,  and  most  of  them  mud  walls ; that  many  were  insuffi- 
ciently thatched,  nearly  all  were  shared  by  the  family  pig, 
as  well  as  by  the  family  children ; that  in  the  majority  of 
cases  a very  slough  of  mud  faced  the  door,  and  that  the 
utmost  misery  of  appearance  characterised  every  dwelling. 
I have  been  in  many  lands,  and  have  seen  many  so-called 
oppressed  people  at  home,  but  I declare  that  neither  in  the 
Russian  steppes,  nor  in  the  most  neglected  Bulgarian  villages, 
still  less  in  the  very  poorest  Hindoo  hamlets,  have  I ever 
seen  such  squalid  kraals  as  the  farmers  of  this  part  of  Mayo 
inhabit.  Here  they  are  not  hidden  away  from  public  view, 
but  front  the  high  road,  a dreadful  testimony  to  mismanage- 
ment and  uncleanliness,  such  as  can  be  met  with  nowhere 
else.  An  officer  of  one  of  her  Majesty’s  regiments,  who 
lately  served  with  honour  in  Zululand,  declared  to  me  that 
not  even  in  the  worst  parts  of  Cetewayo’s  dominions  did  he 
come  across  anything  so  bad  as  here,  and  I am  inclined  to 
believe  that  he  was  not  exaggerating  in  the  slightest” 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


THE  DIFFERENT  RELATIONS  BETWEEN  ENGLISH  AND 
IRISH  LANDLORDS  AND  TENANTS. 

“ I attribute  the  discontent  amongst  the  farmers  to  the  want  of  sym- 
pathy towards  them  on  the  part  of  the  landlords,  want  of  interest  in  their 
welfare,  and  to  insecurity  of  tenure.” — Evidence  given  by  the  Rev.  P. 
Hill,  Skibbereen,  before  present  Land  Commission. 

HE  difference  between  the  social  rela- 
tions of  English  and  Irish  landlords 
and  their  tenants,  is  a subject  which 
has  received  but  little  attention,  and  it  is  one  of 
great  moment  to  the  well-being  of  both  coun- 
tries. 

An  Irish  landlord,  Lord  Belper,  I think, 
writing  to  the  Times , lately  made  it  a special 
landlord  grievance  that  Irish  tenants  would  not 
leave  the  fixing  of  their  rents  to  the  landlord  or 
land  agent.  Would  this  gentleman  like  to  allow 
his  wine  merchant  to  fix  the  cost  of  his  wines, 
if  his  lordship  was  obliged  either  to  deal  with 
him  exclusively,  or  to  do  without  wine  ? 

Probably,  in  the  whole  history  of  the  world, 
there  never  was  a class  of  men  so  utterly  desti- 
tute of  the  most  common  consideration  for  their 


T.  SEXTON,  M.P. 

S ' 


# 


- 


Different  Relations . 


203 


tenants  as  the  large  and  noisy  class  of  Irish 
gentlemen  who  are  now  calling  out  for  co- 
ercion. 

For  coercion  ! that  England  may  compel  the 
Irish  people  by  bullets  and  buckshot,  by  the 
habeas  corpus  or  by  state  prosecutions  or  legal 
disabilities,  to  submit  to  the  exorbitant  rents 
which  they  cannot  pay  and  live  ! Coercion  ! 
that  these  gentlemen  may  be  allowed  to  con- 
tinue a system,  which  will  in  the  end  be  as 
ruinous  to  them  as  to  the  unhappy  serfs  over 
whom  they  wish  to  tyrannize,  to  whom  they 
would  deny  the  rights  of  freemen.  Coercion ! 
that  those  English  lords  may  be  allowed  to  con- 
tinue to  break  English  laws  unmolested,  that 
they  may  be  allowed  to  break  through  the  Land 
Laws  which  were  so  reluctantly  framed  by  Eng- 
land for  the  protection  of  the  poor.  And  these 
same  poor,  who  are  evicted  because  they  cannot 
pay  impossible  rents,  are  to  have  the  burden  of 
supporting  military  and  police;  and  those  scarcely 
less  poor  are  to  pay  large  sums  of  money  for 
their  support,  in  order  that  these  Anglo-Irish 
landlords  may  be  allowed  to  continue  breaking 
the  laws  which  England  has  made. 

Do  not  say  that  I am  exaggerating,  that  I am 
making  a case,  that  all  this  is  fiction.  Look  at 
the  extracts  which  I have  already  given  from 


204 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


the  evidence,  the  unimpeachable  evidence,  given 
before  the  present  Land  Commission,  and  by 
English  gentlemen,  and  you  will  see  that  I state 
a simple  truth.  Mr.  Gladstone’s  Land  Act  is 
“ evaded  to  use  plain  English,  it  is  broken  by 
these  landlords  habitually  and  persistently. 

Even  the  Daily  Telegraph  says,  speaking  of 
Mr.  Adair,  “ he  may  have  made  an  inequitable, 
and  even  cruel,  use  of  his  landlord  rights,”  and 
describes  Captain  Boycott’s  district  thus  : — 

“The  district  was  miserably  poor,  and  the  dwellings 
thereon  something  like  cruel  parodies  of  the  neat  home- 
steads that  gladden  the  eye  of  the  traveller  as  he  passes 
through  England.” 

We  have  already  written  on  the  important 
subject  of  rules  of  estates — a law,  not  only 
within  the  law,  but  actually  a law  which  breaks 
the  law  of  the  land,  to  the  terrible  cost  of  the 
unhappy  tenant. 

One  remarkable  and  painful  instance  of  this 
is  mentioned  in  Mr.  Russell’s  letters  to  the 
Times.  He  says — writing  of  the  Trinity  Col- 

lege estates  at  Cahirciveen — where  the  distress, 
or  rather  the  Famine,  was  most  severe  in 
1879-80  : — 

“ In  a good  many  instances  I found  that  the  tenants  had 
reclaimed  land  from  bog,  and  in  some  they  had  in  recent 


Different  Relations. 


205 


years  rebuilt  their  houses.  One  gentleman  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood informed  us  he  believed  that  within  the  last  forty 
years  at  least  one-third  of  the  land  now  in  tillage  had  been 
reclaimed  and  made  arable  without  allowance  from  the 
landlord.  He  added  that  the  land  was  of  such  a nature 
that  it  would,  if  neglected,  speedily  relapse  into  wildness. 
A tenant  some  seven  years  ago  built  his  house  and  got 
^40  7 s.  from  the  college  towards  the  cost,  of  which, 
however,  ^3  5 only  was  given  to  him  in  cash,  the  difference 
being  (^5  ’js .)  charged  for  a piece  of  timber.  The  tenant 
produced  the  stringent  agreement  under  which  this  ad- 
vance was  made,  of  which  I had  a copy  taken,  by  which  he 
bound  himself  to  repay  the  advance  by  forty  half-yearly  instal- 
ments of  jQ  t 1 2 s.  each,  with  the  proviso  that,  if  he  failed  in 
payment  of  any  one  instalment,  the  whole  should  forthwith 
be  recoverable.  This  hardly  sounds  very  liberal  treatment 
on  the  part  of  a great  corporation.  The  man  assured  me 
that  his  house  had  cost  him  ^120,  and  he  added  with  some 
bitterness,  * I wish  I had  my  money  clear  out  of  the  place, 
and  I would  leave  it  to  them  altogether.”  He  complained 
that  he  had  been  promised  the  money  as  a gift  towards 
building  the  house,  but  faith  had  not  been  kept  with  him. 
This  was  probably  a misunderstanding.  Another  man  who 
had  been  tenant  for  thirty  years,  and  whose  father-in-law, 
through  whom  he  got  the  land,  had  been  tenant  for  sixty 
years,  told  me  that  the  rent  had  been  raised  in  his  time 
from  £8  to  £26  ioj-.  One  of  these  rises  was  in  1864, 
when  some  kind  of  general  valuation  was  made  by  valuers 
from  Dublin,  Messrs.  Brassington  & Gale,  who  in  some 
cases  reduced,  but  in  the  much  greater  number  consider- 
ably increased,  the  rents.  It  is  significant  of  the  relations 
between  landlord  and  tenant  in  Ireland  how  these  rises 
take  place.  It  throws  a strong  light  upon  that  cherished 
principle  “freedom  of  contract.” 


206 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


“ Later  on  I shall  have  one  or  two  striking  examples  to 
quote  on  another  estate.  But  the  mode  is  simple  ; the 
tenants  are  informed  that  for  the  future  their  rent  shall  be 
so  much.  Indeed,  instances  were  quoted  to  us  in  which 
the  increase  of  rent  was  retrospective.  So  much  for  freedom* 
of  contract  between  the  Irish  landlord  and  his  tenant ! 
Another  of  the  tenants  of  the  college  told  me  that,  having 
laid  out  some  money  in  drainage,  and  having  a wish  to  lay 
out  more,  he  applied  to  Captain  Needham,  the  agent,  for 
an  allowance,  and,  finally  in  October,  1879,  memorialised 
the  Board.  The  following  is  the  answer  of  the  Board  : — 

‘ The  Bursar  of  Trinity  College  has  received  A.  B.’s 
memorial  of  the  23rd  inst.,  respecting  the  advance  from 
the  Board  of  Trinity  College,  for  the  improvements  of 
his  farm.  If  A.  B.  will  place  in  Captain  Needham’s  hands 
the  written  agreement  consenting  to  pay  the  increased  rent 
at  the  rate  of  is.  7 d.  in  the  £ for  any  advance  of  money 
which  he  may  require,  the  Bursar  will  lay  his  application 
before  the  Board.’  Thus,  not  only  would  the  tenant  have 
to  pay  nearly  8 per  cent,  yearly  for  the  money  expended  in 
the  improvement  of  landlords’  property,  but,  according  to  the 
existing  law,  expose  himself  to  have  his  rent  increased  by 
his  then  or  subsequent  landlord,  and  increased  upon  the 
basis  of  the  improvements  which  he  himself  had  made,  and 
for  which  he  himself  had  dearly  paid ! This  is  no  fancy 
sketch,  for  be  it  borne  in  mind  that  when  an  increase  of 
rent  takes  place,  even  where  the  form  of  a valuation  is 
gone  through,  no  acconnt  is  taken  how  far  the  improved 
value  may  have  been  created  by  the  labour  and  the  capital 
of  the  tenant.  It  was  so  in  tae  case  of  the  valuation  of 
Messrs.  Brassington  & Gale.  I was  anxious  to  have  some  au- 
thentic information  as  to  the  more  remote  portions  of  this 
property,  which  I did  not  myself  visit,  including  that  at 
Port  Magee  ; and  a gentleman — a member  of  the  English 


Different  Relations . 


207 


Bar — who  knows  the  locality  well,  writing  to  me  generally 
of  the  condition  of  the  estate,  uses  this  emphatic  language : 
‘As  to  the  College  Estate,  it  is  simply  a disgrace  to  the 
country.  It  would  be  impossible  to  describe  the  filth  or 
misery  of  the  dwellings.  I could  not  find  out  that  the  agent 
had  ever  taken  any  trouble  about  them.  I was  told  every- 
where that  he  had  never  been  inside  the  houses.’” 

But  the  Trinity  College  Estates  are  by  no 
means  the  only  examples  of  this  style  of  govern- 
ment. Anglo-Irish  landlords  are  quite  as  cruel 
offenders  as  any  corporation  or  middle  class 
landlord. 

Mr.  Russell  writes  thus  of  the  Lansdowne 
Estates  and  their  management : — 

“ The  management  of  these  large  estates  is  in  the  hands 
of  Mr.  Townsend  Trench,  son  of  the  late  Mr.  W.  Stuart 
Trench,  to  whom  he  succeeded.  It  is  difficult  to  say  how 
far  the  judgment  of  the  community  over  whom  their  powers 
as  land  agents  were  and  are  exercised  is  just  or  reliable. 
Unquestionably,  father  and  son  were  spoken  of  almost 
universally  with  fear  and  dislike — to  use  no  stronger  language. 
It  was  painful  to  notice  the  mortal  dread  of  agent  and 
bailiff  in  which  many  of  these  tenants  live.  I noticed 
nothing  like  it  elsewhere  in  Kerry.  Their  conduct  may  be 
misjudged,  but  assuredly  no  kindly  recollection  of  the  late 
Mr.  Trench  seems  to  survive,  and  no  kindly  feeling  towards 
his  son,  the  present  agent,  exists.  Lord  Lansdowne,  al- 
though he  resides  a portion  of  the  year  at  Derreen,  near 
Kenmare,  does  not  seem  to  be  generally  known  to  his 
tenants.  Those  on  the  Iveragh  portion  of  his  property  have 
never  seen  him  since  his  visit  there,  on  the  occasion  of  his 


208 


The  Case  of  Ireland  staled. 


attaining  his  majority.  More  than  once  when — some  harsh 
case  being  cited  to  me — I suggested  to  the  tenants  to  appeal 
to  Lord  Lansdowne,  the  answer  was  always  the  same  : “Oh, 
he  leaves  it  all  to  the  agent or,  “It’s  no  use— It  all  rests 
with  Trench.” 

But  again,  let  me  call  attention  to  the  serious 
evils  of  this  government  of  Ireland,  which  is  not 
according  to  English  law,  but  which  is  accord- 
ing to  those  “ rules  of  the  estate,”  this  landlord 
code,  which  is  the  cause,  as  I believe,  far  more 
than  excessive  rents,  of  the  disturbed  state  of 
Ireland. 

Mr.  Russell  says  : — 

t:  One  extraordinary  institution  prevails  on  tms  estate,  not 
only  on  the  Kenmare,  but  also  on  the  Cahirciveen  portion 
of  it — namely,  what  is  called  the  hanging  two  gales  or  hang- 
ing year’s  rent.  At  first  I supposed  that  this  merely  meant 
that  instead  of  the  hanging  gale,  or  half  year,  which  is 
common  on  Irish  estates,  carelessness  or  liberality  had  re- 
cently suffered  this  to  be  increased  to  two  hanging  half- 
years.  But  I found  this  was  not  so.  I found  it  dated  back 
to  the  pre-famine  years,  and  that  while  treated  as  non-exist- 
ing, so  long  as  the  tenant  continued  to  pay  the  accruing 
gales,  the  hanging  year  was  used  as  an  engine  of  terrific 
power  in  the  hands  of  the  agent  where  the  tenant  fell  in 
arr^ar.  It  is  difficult  to  understand  this,  and  I was  slow  to 
believe  it ; but  over  and  over  again,  and  in  all  directions 
upon  the  estate,  I was  informed  that  this  outlying  year 
counted  for  nothing,  and  dated  back  to  a time  older  than 
many  of  the  inhabitants.  They  added  that,  although  it 


Different  Relations. 


209 


counted  for  nothing,  so  long  as  the  accruing  rent  was  punc- 
tually paid,  it  did  count  for  much  if  the  rent  was  half-a-year 
in  arrear;  for  that  then,  and  then  only,  was  the  dormant  year 
brought  forward  as  the  basis  on  which  an  ejectment  was 
founded,  and  by  which  (it  is  not  too  harsh  a word  to  use)  the 
screw  was  applied  to  the  tardy-paying  tenant.  More  than 
one  instance  was  cited  to  us  of  cases  where  an  ejected 
tenant,  whom  the  agent  did  not  desire  to  continue  on  the 
estate,  was  not  allowed  to  redeem,  except  upon  payment  of 
this  stale  demand ; whilst  if  the  tenant  were  not  obnoxious  to 
the  agent  no  such  demand  was  made.  I confess  I was  in- 
credulous for  a long  time,  until  I was  informed  by  the  Rev. 
Mr.  M'Cutcheon,  Protestant  Rector  of  Kenmare  (himself  a 
sturdy  Northern),  that  when  he  succeeded  to  the  incumbency 
of  Kenmare,  upon  paying  his  first  gale  of  rent,  he  looked  at 
his  receipt  and,  to  his  surprise,  found  that  it  was  dated  a 
year  back.  So  that  he  was  made  to  appear  not  only  to  be 
owing  a year’s  rent,  but  to  be  paying  for  a period  when  in 
effect  he  was  not  in  occupation.  He  complained  of  this, 
and  received  for  his  comfort  the  assurance  of  Mr.  Trench 
that  it  was  a mere  matter  of  form,  that  it  was  the  custom  of 
the  office.  I mentioned  the  circumstance,  first  to  Lord 
Kenmare’s  sub-agent,  and  afterwards  to  Mr.  Hussey,  and 
each  of  them  laughed.  The  story  was  obviously  not  new 
to  them,  and  Mr.  Hussey  significantly  added  that,  in  his 
opinion,  it  gave  to  Mr.  Trench  more  power  over  the 
tenants  than  any  law  could  give  him.  On  this  estate,  as  on 
all  others  to  which  I have  adverted,  there  lies  in  all  direc- 
tions land  apparently  capable  of  reclamation  in  the  hands  of 
those  who  had  the  will  and  the  interest  to  reclaim.  I was 
not  without  skilled  advice  on  this  matter ; I am  not  speaking 
merely  from  my  own  rude  notions  of  the  subject.” 

Here  is  again  another  instance  of  the  misery 

o 


210  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

caused  by  what  is  certainly  little  short  of 
tyranny  : — 

“ Bitter  complaint  was  made  that,  even  in  cases  within 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  county  courts,  writs  of  ejectment  are 
issued  from  the  superior  courts — what  the  tenants  call 
* Dublin  Writs.’  These  not  alone  necessitate  the  employ- 
ment of  a Dublin  solicitor,  either  directly  or  through  some 
local  solicitor,  but  suggest  to  the  minds  of  the  tenants  a 
fearful  unknown  field  of  expensive  litigation  Even  the 
initial  costs  often  are,  in  proportion  to  the  rent  demanded, 
enormous ; but  yet  the  screw  is  so  powerful  that  the  effort 
will  be  made  to  pay,  even  if  the  payer  is  to  denude  his  farm 
of  the  greater  part  of  his  stock,  and  himself  of  the  means  of 
turning  his  holding  to  account.  I find  that  from  Sept,  i, 
1879,  t0  Sept.  1880,  sixty  superior  court  writs  of  summons 
in  ejectment,  exclusive  of  Quarter  Sessions  processes,  were 
issued.  Of  these,  forty  were  issued  about  September,  1879, 
and  twenty  were  issued  in  May  of  the  present  year.  I have 
the  list  before  me.  The  former  comprised  rent  due  up  to 
May  1 (but  by  the  custom  of  the  office  collected  in  July), 
and  the  latter  twenty  comprised  rent  up  to  May  1,  1880. 
Excepting  one  case,  the  greatest  amount  of  rent  due  was 
two  years’  rent,  or,  excluding  the  stale  or  fictitious  outlying 
year,  one  year’s  rent.  In  the  great  majority  of  instances, 
three  half  years’  rent  only  were  due,  or,  excluding  the  ficti- 
tious year,  one  half  year’s  rent  was  due.” 

It  is  no  wonder  that  noblemen  who  are 
anxious  to  continue  this  system  of  oppression 
and  terrorism,  should  leave  no  effort  unused  to 
prevent  the  public  from  knowing  the  truth. 


Different  Relations. 


211 


Such  gentlemen  acted  with  perfect  consistency 
in  voting  against  the  “ Disturbance  Bill.” 

Would  any  English  landlord  act  thus  towards 
his  tenants ; and,  if  he  could  do  so,  dare  he  do 
it.  A case  in  point  was  put  before  the  Land 
Commission  at  Clonmel,  and  Baron  Dowse’s 
remark  should  be  printed  in  every  paper  in  the 
United  Kingdom  : “ Is  it  possible,”  he  said, 
“ such  a thing  could  be  done  in  any  civilized 
country  ?” 

Here  is  the  case,  and  the  culprit  is  again  a 
nobleman — one  of  that  class  who  clamour  so 
loudly  for  their  own  “ rights,”  and  for  “ coer- 
cion ” for  the  unfortunate  people  who  object  to 
such  practices  : — 

“ Amongst  those  who  appeared  for  examination,  was  the 
Rev.  Father  Finn,  P.P.,  Newcastle,  Tipperary,  when  the 
following  startling  facts  were  brought  to  light  with  regard  to 
two  properties  in  his  neighbourhood — the  Perry  and  Ash- 
town  Estates. 

“ Baron  Dowse — Are  you  conversant  with  land  ? Do  you 
know  its  working  and  value  ? 

“ Rev.  Father  Finn — I am  the  son  of  a tenant  farmer,  and 
have  been  always  living  where  I could  see  farming  work 
done,  and  know  perfectly  well  the  value  of  land.  I will  first 
refer  to  Mr.  William  Perry’s  property,  Newcastle.  He  be- 
came owner  of  the  estate  by  succession  in  the  year  1851. 
The  rule  on  the  estate  was  to  give  short  leases. 

“ Baron  Dowse — What  is  the  property  worth  ? 

“ Nearly  .£3,000  a year,  and  a great  part  of  that  property 


212 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


is  reclaimed  land.  In  proof  of  the  short  leases  I will  lay 
before  your  lordship  five  leases  granted  since  1853  to  one 
man,  and  he  only  represents  the  other  tenants  on  the 
property. 

“ Baron  Dowse — Is  it  possible  such  a thing  could  be  done 
in  any  civilized  country  ? 

“The  Rev.  Father  Finn  then  handed  in  the  five  leases  in 
question,  and  said  that  a tenant  on  the  property  had  to  take 
out  in  the  seventeen  years  four  leases,  and  each  time  a lease 
was  taken,  an  increase  of  rent  was  put  on.  This  rule  applied 
to  all  the  tenants.  He  thought  it  was  a great  hardship  that 
a man  with  18  acres  should  be  obliged  to  pay  for  every 
lease  during  the  last  seventeen  years.  There  was  one  clause 
in  the  lease  which  he  would  wish  to  draw  the  Commissioners’ 
attention  to.  First,  that  no  tenant  on  his  (Mr.  Perry’s)  pro- 
perty could  harbour  a stranger  for  two  consecutive  nights 
without  the  landlord’s  written  permission.  The  hardship 
that  resulted  from  this  clause  was  such  that  he  (the  Rev. 
Father  Finn)  was  often  obliged  to  relieve  an  old  man,  nearly 
eighty  years  of  age,  at  his  door,  and  his  daughter,  a tenant 
on  the  property,  able  and  willing  to  take  him  in,  but  she 
dared  not,  owing  to  the  clause  he  referred  to  in  the  lease. 
A great  deal  of  the  property  was  situated  on  the  mountain 
side,  and  it  would  be  the  greatest  advantage  to  the  tenantry 
to  be  able  sometimes  to  use  a little  artificial  manure.  They 
dared  not,  because  there  was  a clause  in  the  lease  forbidding 
them  to  use  anything  but  farm-yard  manure.  A drain,  or 
ditch,  or  house,  dared  not  be  built  without  the  written  per- 
mission of  the  landlord.  He  knew  a tenant  on  the  property 
whose  family  were  dwelling  in  a house,  the  roof  of  which  had 
fallen  down,  and  they  had  to  face  the  inclemency  of  an 
entire  winter  because  the  landlord  would  not  give  the  written 
•permission. 

“ Baron  Doswe — What  would  you  recommend? 


Different  Relations . 


213 


“Rev.  Father  Finn — You  have  property  in  the  Incum- 
bered Estates  Court,  and  I myself  saw  within  the  last  three 
months  four  properties  put  up  for  sale,  and  were  withdrawn 
for  the  want  of  a purchaser.  Could  not  these  be  bought  up 
and  portioned  out? 

“ Baron  Dowse — Where  is  the  money  to  come  from  ? 

“Witness — Let  the  Government  give  the  money,  as  they 
are  doing  under  the  Board  of  Works,  and  have  a lien  in  the 
land,  and  thereby  take  the  first  step  towards  a peasant  pro- 
prietary. The  money  would  be  paid  to  the  Government 
as  promptly  as  in  the  case  of  those  two  men  who  purchased 
the  glebe  lands. 

“ Baron  Dowse — Do  you  believe  by  creating  a peasant 
proprietary  it  would  make  the  people  more  attached  to  the 
Crown  ? 

“ Rev.  Father  Finn — I believe  it  would.  I never  knew 
yet  a well-to-do  man  to  be  rebellious. 

“Lord  Ashtown's  Property. 

“ The  Rev.  Father  Finn  then  proceeded  to  give  evidence 
with  regard  to  Lord  Ash  town’s  property.  He  said  that  about 
five  years  ago,  Lord  Ashtown  purchased  the  Gienbury  pro- 
perty from  Lord  Stradbroke,  who  was  an  absentee  landlord, 
living  only  a week  each  year  on  his  property.  He  (Lord 
Stradbroke)  kept  on  the  estate  an  agent,  Abraham  Coates, 
who  certainly  knew  how  to  put  a heavy  rent  upon  the 
tenantry.  The  property  changed  hands  about  five  years 
ago,  and,  as  he  had  mentioned,  was  purchased  by  the  late 
Lord  Ashtown  at  a time  when  every  tenant  on  the  property 
was  almost  out  of  lease.  The  agent,  Mr.  Uniack  Townsend, 
proposed  new  leases  to  the  tenantry,  but  they,  discovering 
that  a great  increase  of  rent  would  be  put  on  if  they  accepted 
the  new  leases,  refused.  They  subsequently  took  the  new 
leases. 


214 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated \ 


“ Baron  Dowse — Why  did  they  take  those  new  leases 
out  ? Were  they  not  acting  as  free  agents  in  signing  the 
contract  ? 

“ Rev.  Father  Finn  replied  he  did  not  consider  them  at 
all  free  agents,  because  they  were  compelled  to  take  the  new 
leases  under  threat  of  eviction,  and  if  they  did  not  take  them 
out  they  had  two  alternatives  before  them— either  to  enter  a 
workhouse,  or  go  into  an  emigrant  ship  at  Queenstown. 

“ Baron  Dowse — Do  you  know  of  your  own  knowledge 
they  were  under  threat  of  eviction  ? 

“ Witness — Certainly ; a number  of  men  will  come  before 
you  to  prove  that  such  was  the  case. 

“The  Rev.  Father  Finn  then  mentioned  the  following 
cases,  to  show  the  effect  the  taking  out  of  the  new  leases 
had  on  the  tenants  on  the  property : — Thomas  Butler,  of 
Deerpark,  owned  about  36  acres  of  arable  land.  He  got  a 
new  lease  about  four  years  ago,  by  which  the  rent  was  raised 
from  8s.  to  ^58  10s.,  Griffith’s  valuation  of  the  man’s 
holding  being  ^29  5s.  Michael  Tobin,  Crouchnagree, 
under  threat  of  eviction,  took  a new  lease  about  the  same 
time.  He  held  about  30  acres  of  arable  land,  chiefly  re- 
claimed by  his  father  and  himself  from  the  mountain  side. 
The  rent  was  raised  from  .£42  to  ^47  under  the  new  lease, 
and  Griffith’s  valuation  was  ^25.  Patrick  Flynn,  of  Crou- 
chateskin,  got  a new  lease  about  four  years  ago,  under  threat 
of  eviction.  He  was  deprived,  in  getting  the  new  lease,  of  15 
acres  of  land,  and  still  his  rent  was  raised.  Under  the  old 
lease  his  rent  was  fg2,  under  the  new,  ^98,  Griffith's  valua- 
tion being  ^41  10s.  John  Walsh,  Bawnfaun,  got  a new 
lease  in  1872  from  Lord  Stradbroke.  Under  the  old  lease 
the  rent  was  ^134  12s.  ; under  the  new  lease  the  rent  was 
raised  to  ^£165,  while  Griffith’s  valuation  was  only  ^79. 
There  was  a clause  in  the  lease  depriving  the  tenants  trom 
getting  compensation  for  any  improvements  they  might  have 


Different  Relations . 


215 


made  on  their  holdings.  In  the  case  of  Patrick  Mulcahy, 
Ballydonoch,  he  got  a new  lease  in  1869.  His  old  rent 
was  £2  2S.  per  acre,  and  in  getting  the  new  lease  the  rent 
was  raised  to  £2  I0S-  Per  acre.  He  built  a dwelling-house 
and  out-offices  fit  for  any  man,  and  there  was  a clause  in  the 
lease,  that  if  he  were  put  out  to-morrow,  he  would  not  be 
able  to  recover  one  halfpenny.  His  holding  was  on  the 
banks  of  the  River  Suir.  He  was  paying  for  about  7^  acres 
of  a river,  and  he  would  not  be  allowed  to  cast  a line  on  it 
to  catch  a salmon.  The  present  agent  offered  to  let  the 
river  for  £\o  to  another  gentleman.  The  farm  of  John 
Mara,  Crouchateskin,  was  entirely  reclaimed  by  himself  and 
his  father.  His  rent  was  raised  under  the  lease  got  from 
Lord  Ashtown’s  agent.  He  paid  at  present  £^o  for  that 
farm,  although  Griffith’s  valuation  was  only  ^10.  These 
were,  the  Rev.  Father  Finn  added,  only  instances  of  how 
the  rest  were  treated  in  the  same  way.” 

“ Baron  Dowse. — Have  you  any  other  evidence  of  land 
grievance  to  lay  before  us  ? 

“ Rev.  Father  Finn.— Yes  ; 1 have  a tenant-farmer  in  my 
parish  who  wishes  to  make  a statement  to  you. 

“John  Nugent  was  then  called  in,  and,  in  reply  to  Baron 
Dowse,  said  he  lived  at  Boulahalla;  that  Mrs.  Stephen 
Murphy  was  his  landlady,  and  that  she  lived  at  Banard. 
He  had  sixteen  acres  of  land  reclaimed  from  the  mountain. 
His  rent  was  ,£21  a year.  Griffith’s  valuation  was  about 
£*2- 

“ Baron  Dowse. — Do  you  refuse  to  pay  that  rent  now  ? 

“ Witness. — No;  but  my  landlady,  to  whom  I have  offered 
it  on  two  gale  days,  refused  to  take  it  from  me,  unless  I 
would  pay  an  increased  rent  of  £30  a year. 

“ Baron  Dowse. — Did  you  pay  her  the  increased  rent  ? 

“Witness. — No  ; because  if  I did  I would  be  soon  in  the 
poorhouse. 


2 1 6 The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

“ Baron  Dowse. — And  what  did  you  do  with  what  you  call 
the  honest  rent  to  this  woman  ? 

“Witness. — By  the  advice  of  my  parish  priest,  the  Rev. 
Father  Finn,  I put  my  two  rents  into  the  bank,  and  there  it 
will  remain  until  she  accepts  it. 

“ Baron  Dowse. — Will  you  pay  her  any  day  what  you  say 
is  your  honest  rent  ? 

“ Witness. — I will,  to  the  farthing. 

“About  eighteen  of  Lord  Ashtown’s  tenantry  then  ap- 
peared before  the  Commissioners,  and  gave  evidence  corro- 
borative of  the  Rev.  Father  Finn’s  statement.” 

Such  evidence  needs  no  comment ; but  as  a 
great  deal  has  been  said  about  the  action  of 
Irish  priests  in  the  present  crisis,  a few  words 
may  not  be  unnecessary. 

It  has  been  made  a reproach  to  Irish  priests 
even  recently,  in  the  English  papers,  that  they 
do  not  come  from  the  upper  or  fashionable  class 
of  English  Catholics.  There  are  some  who 
might  think  that  the  reproach  might  be  re- 
versed, and  that  the  upper  or  fashionable  class 
of  Catholics  might  be  reproached  with  giving 
so  few  of  their  sons  to  God’s  service.  They, 
at  least,  should  treat  with  singular  respect  that 
great  spiritual  army  of  Irish  priests,  so  many 
of  whom  fill  the  places  which,  perhaps,  some  of 
their  own  children  ought  to  occupy.  Unhappily, 
however,  this  class  in  England  are  quite  as 
ignorant  of  the  true  state  of  Ireland  as  any 
English  Protestant,  and  with  far  less  excuse. 


Different  Relations . 


217 


The  word  politics  has  unfortunately  been 
taken  of  late  years  as  synonymous  with  party, 
and  as  such  it  has  led  a most  important  subject 
into  disrepute.  What  are  politics  ? or  rather 
what  idea  ought  the  word  to  represent  ? Politics 
are  the  regulation  of  the  public  action  of  states; 
but  since  there  can  be  no  multiple  without  a 
unit,  no  multitude  without  distinct  individualities, 
politics  concern  each  individual  in  a state — 
above  all,  when  the  particular  subject  refers  to 
national  politics. 

In  Ireland  the  very  existence  of  the  people 
is  a question  of  politics.  Are  they  to  be  deci- 
mated periodically  by  famine  ? or  is  Ireland  to 
be  depopulated  by  emigration  ? These  are 
political  subjects  ; but  they  are  also  most  im- 
portant social  and  personal  subjects.  Those 
who  form  their  opinions  on  such  points  with- 
out taking  sufficient  care  to  obtain  correct 
information  are  unworthy  of  their  manhood  ; 
yet  that  such  is  the  case  we  know  but  too 
well. 

Mr.  Bright’s  armament  is  irresistible.  He 

o o 

says  : 

“They  [ih 3 young]  have  no  amb’tion  to  go  wrong 
(politically)  ; they  are  not  subject  to  the  temptations  which 
beset  monarchs  and  statesmen  ; they  err  from  mistake 
or  ignorance,  end  it  is  because  we  wish  them  not  to  err 


2 I 8 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated, ’ 


that  we  ask  young  men  everywhere  to  make  themselves 
thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  political  interests  of  their 
country.  I spoke  of  those  great  crimes  of  those  great 
leaders  of  mankind,  of  the  calamities  they  had  brought 
upon  us,  or  upon  some  of  us,  and  not  always  upon  us. 

I take  a glance  for  a moment  to  a country  which  is  our 
next  neighbour — France.  Look  at  what  Fraoce  has  suf- 
fered for  the  last  hundred  years — how  much  of  war,  how 
much  of  insurrection,  how  much  of  anarchy,  how  much  of 
expenditure  and  of  needless  taxation.  Some  of  you  recol- 
lect— it  was  only  a few  years  before  my  life  began — when 
the  French  Revolution  broke  out,  and  when  there  was  an 
explosion  and  catastrophe  which  shook  the  whole  of  Europe, 
and  which  impoverished  in  the  course  of  its  career  many 
nations,  which  sacrificed  hundreds  of  thousands  of  lives,  and 
which  for  very  many  years  unsettled  the  relations  and  systems 
which  had  been  existing  on  the  Continent  of  Europe ; but 
now,  when  we  can  look  back,  dissect,  and  examine,  it  is  not 
very  difficult  to  tell  how  these  things  came  about.  If  there 
had  been  no  Louis  XIV.  with  his  wars,  no  Louis  XV.  with 
his  odious  profligacy,  and  no  Louis  XVI.  with  his  feeble- 
ness, and  if  there  had  not  been  the  exactions  of  the  nobility 
of  France,  and  the  terrible  corruptions  of  the  Church  of 
France,  the  catastrophe  which  followed  could  not  have  taken 
place.  The  population  of  France  were  little  advanced — • 
almost  not  at  all  advanced — in  freedom.  They  had  no 
political  clubs  in  those  days  ; their  young  men  were  taught 
nothing  of  politics  ; their  population  were  subject  absolutely 
to  the  central  authority  of  the  country  ; and  that  central 
authority,  and  the  powerful  classes  that  surrounded  it,  led 
the  country  to  the  disasters  to  which  I referred.  Now,  if  you 
cross  the  Atlantic,  and  come  to  a transaction  of  our  own 
times — I refer  to  the  United  States — if  all  the  people  in  the 
Northern  States,  who  held  no  slaves — confining  my  observa- 


Different  Relations. 


219 


don  to  them — if  they  had  been  instructed  on  that  question, 
if  they  had  been  unanimous  in  the  condemnation  of  slavery, 
it  is  almost  certain,  I believe  it  thoroughly,  that  that  great 
crime  against  human  nature  might  have  been  removed  long 
before,  and  removed  without  the  sacrifice  of  more  than  a 
thousand  million  sterling  in  money  and  more  lives  (cheers). 
Well,  now,  if  these  tremendous  events  come  upon  countries, 
and  curse  their  population  by  reason  mainly  of  the  ignor- 
ance of  the  people  and  their  unacquaintance  with  political 
principles  and  the  true  path  of  political  success,  is  it  not 
commendable  that  there  should  be  clubs,  if  clubs  be  an  ade- 
quate anagood  mode  of  spreading  political  information  amongst 
the  people?  And,  stepping  a little  farther,  and  leaving 
France  and  America  (with  its  great  civil  war  and  grand 
results),  we  come  to  our  own  country,  and  we  behold  Ireland, 
not  an  insignificant  portion  of  the  three  kingdoms,  which 
should  form  a united  kingdom,  suffering,  not  from  anything 
that  the  existing  Government  or  Legislature  has  done,  not 
from  anything  which  has  been  done  even  from  the  reign  of 
the  present  monarch,  but  suffering  from  things  which  had 
been  done  in  any  time  during  th$  last  two  centuries,  and 
which,  if  our  forefathers  had  understood  these  questions  even 
as  well  as  we  now  understand  them,  these  evils  could  never 
have  been  inflicted  upon  the  Irish  people.  It  had  been  said 
that  the  soil  of  Ireland  had  been  confiscated,  that  there  had 
been  planted  in  that  country  great  proprietors  who  went  over 
from  Scotland  and  England,  and  who  were  settled  there  as 
an  English  garrison  in  a conquered  country,  that  there  never 
was  any  attempt  made  to  win  the  conquered  people  over,  and 
that  there  was  no  attempt  to  make  them  feel  that  the  English 
power,  even  though  it  was  dominant,  yet  that  it  was  still 
just  and  merciful  in  the  treatment  of  the  Irish  people.” 

If  we  have  given  this  extract  at  such  length, 


220  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

it  is  because  of  the  importance  of  the  subject. 
We  are  told,  we  hope,  that  the  English  nation 
will  cease  to  treat  Ireland  as  a dependency,  to  be 
kept  under  by  a quasi- martial  law,  and  that  enact- 
ments will  be  made  which  will  secure  her  people 
ordinary  prosperity  in  their  native  land.  But  all 
depends  on  the  class  who  have  authority  in  their 
hands  to  make  such  laws.  If  they  remain  in 
ignorance,  Ireland  will  remain  in  misery,  and  a 
golden  opportunity  of  doing  justice — a long  de- 
ferred justice — will  have  passed  away. 

The  lamentable  ignorance  and  prejudice  of 
the  upper  classes  of  Irish  and  Anglo-Irish  lords 
may  work  deadly  evil.  But,  as  Mr.  Bright  has 
well  said,  younger  men  have  not  the  same 
temptations.  Let  them  save  England,  for 
though,  for  a time,  England  may  not  suffer  by 
continuing  to  refuse  justice  to  Ireland,  neither 
countries  nor  individuals  can  prosper  when  they 
practice  injustice. 

It  is  certainly  exceedingly  painful  to  read  the 
persistent  misstatements  of  Anglo-Irish  noble- 
men in  the  Times.  Lord  Dunsany  writes  that 
the  “ surplus  population’’  of  Connaught  is  to  be 
provided  for  by  quartering  the  people  on 
Leinster  landlords.  No  doubt  thousands  will 
believe  him.  Then  he  rushes  into  the  usual 
platitudes  about  the  government  recommending 


Different  Relations. 


221 


agitation  ; never  does  he  express  one  word  of 
commiseration  for  the  starved  people  of  Con- 
naught, never  does  he  say  one  manly  statesman- 
like word  of  consideration  of,  or  calm  discussion 
of  why  the  agitation  has  been  caused.  There 
is  no  calm  asking  of  what  will  be  for  the  general 
good  of  the  whole  nation.  Only  cries  of  anger 
and  reproach  and  fear  for  supposed  personal 
interests.  Then  he  says  : — 

“ The  Land  League  is  by  far  the  best  cry  yet  adopted  for 
Irish  agitation,  for  it  appeals  forcibly  to  the  greed  of  men 
not  over  scrupulous  by  nature.  Yet,  were  it  known  in  Ire- 
land that  the  government  were  honestly  determined  to  stand 
by  their  own  law  of  1870,  we  should  soon  hear  as  little  of 
the  Land  League  as  we  do  of  Repeal.  ^ 

But  who  are  the  men  who  are  not  over 
“ scrupulous  by  nature  ?”  Alas  ! are  they  not 
those  who  should  show  the  best  example  to  their 
dependents.  Is  it  unscrupulous  to  object  to 
pay  a rack  rent,  or  is  it  unscrupulous  to  put  it 
on  ? Is  it  unscrupulous  to  ask  Irish  land  agents 
to  stand  by  the  law  of  1870,  or  are  they  not 
rather  unscrupulous  who  habitually  insist  on 
their  tenants  signing  agreements  that  they  will 
not  ask  the  protection  of  that  law  ? 

One  complaint  of  the  Irish  people  at  the  pre- 
sent day  is  that  the  landlords  “ will  not  stand  by 
their  own  law  of  18  70.” 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


THE  IRISH  PRIESTS  AND  THE  LAND  AGITATION. 

“Iam  not  ashamed  to  be  called  an  agitator;  but  I scorn  to  be  called 
an  assassin.” — Rev.  P.  O’Connor,  P.P. 

N Mr.  Bright’s  speech,  from  which  we 
have  quoted  so  largely  in  the  previous 
chapter,  we  find  a strong  and  manly 
condemnation  of  the  English  government  of 
Ireland  for  the  last  two  centuries,  and  he  attri- 
butes that  misgovernment  plainly  to  ignorance. 

Mr.  Bright  especially  alludes  to  the  penal 
laws,  and  includes  them,  in  a marked  manner, 
in  the  category  of  ills  which  knowledge  has 
banished. 

I think  that  no  one  who  considers  the  public 
pronouncements  on  the  present  agitation  in  Ire- 
land, can  fail  to  be  deeply  struck  by  the  absence 
of  polemical  abuse.  Whenever  Irish  landlords 
have  alluded  to  Irish  priests  in  their  letters  to 
English  papers,  they  have  done  so  courteously. 

No  doubt  if  the  Church  could  be  got  to  use 
her  influence  against  the  people  it  would  be 


Irish  Priests  and  the  Land  Agitation . 223 

attempted.  But  beyond  very  marked  approval 
of  any  person  or  expression  which  could  be 
construed  as  against  the  present  demand  for 
legal  protection  for  Irish  tenants,  there  has 
been  a marked  and  happy  absence  of  all  reli- 
gious recrimination.  This  is  the  result  of  more 
knowledge.  Ignorance  of  Catholic  faith  and 
practices  led  to  the  enactment  of  penal  laws. 
When  men  came  to  know  better  they  acted 
more  wisely  ; and,  probably,  the  descendants  of 
these  gentlemen,  who  are  now  so  ignorantly  de- 
nouncing the  demands  of  the  Irish  people  for 
legal  rights,  will  write  as  men  write  to-day 
about  the  ignorance  which  caused  the  English 
misgovernment  of  Ireland  in  past  ages. 

In  Lord  Dunsany’s  letter  to  the  Daily  Tele- 
graph he  says  : 

“ There  are  three  powers  which  influence  emigration  in 
Ireland — the  landlord,  the  professional  agitator,  and  the 
priest.  The  landlord  in  over-peopled  districts  promotes 
emigration ; the  professional  agitator  opposes  it,  as  it  ruins 
his  trade  ; the  priest  opposes  it  not  only  because  it  deprives 
him  of  his  income,  but  also  because  it  strips  him  of  an  in- 
fluence which  he  justly  prizes.1 n 

Lord  Lifford,  writing  to  the  Times , says  : — 

“The  Bright  clauses  of  the  Act  of  1870  I have  always 
liked;  but  what  are  called  the  “three  Fs” — viz.,  fixity  of 


224  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

tenure,  free  sale,  and  fair  rents,  as  propounded  by  the  Roman 
Catholic  bishops  and  clergy  of  Cork  and  Cloyne,  contain 
within  their  lines  the  material  of  a not  altogether  unsatisfac- 
tory Land  Act,  always  supposing  that  ordinary  law  and 
political  economy  are  abandoned  in  Ireland.” 

The  paragraphs  above  quoted  are  a remark- 
able example  of  the  course  of  public  opinion. 
Public  opinion  has,  slowly  indeed,  but  never- 
theless surely,  informed  itself  as  to  the  character 
and  motives  of  the  Irish  priest.  There  is  no 
longer  gross  invective  or  gross  misrepresenta- 
tion. And  yet,  it  is  well  to  remember  that  there 
was  a time  when  both  prevailed.  Ignorance 
and  prejudice  are  the  parents  of  innumerable 
evils,  and  it  would  be  wisdom  if  we  learned  what 
absurdities  have  been  believed  and  defended 
from  pure  ignorance  and  prejudice,  and  took 
care  now  that  we  are  not  guided  by  their  false 
and  lurid  lights,  as  we  so  frequently  were. 

Lord  Dunsany  says  the  priest  opposes  emigra- 
tion because  it  deprives  him  of  his  income.  If 
Lord  Dunsany  knew  the  Irish  priests  as,  let  us 
hope,  his  descendants  will  know  them,  he  will 
know  that  the  Irish  priests'  income  is  a matter 
of  very  little  moment  to  him,  and  that  the  only 
influence  he  desires  is  to  keep  his  people  from 
the  eternal  ruin,  which  is  too  often  the  sure  end 
of  wholesale  emigration. 


Irish  Priests  and  the  Land  Agitation . 225 

Lord  Lifford  writes  not  unkindly  of  the  plans 
propounded  by  the  Catholic  bishops  and  clergy 
of  Cork  and  Cloyne. 

But  why,  it  will  be  asked,  do  the  Catholic 
priests  of  Ireland  take  such  a decided  part  in 
the  present  discussion  ? Let  me  answer  first  in 
their  own  words. 

We  give  first  the  published  letters  of  the 
Irish  bishops,  which  speak  for  themselves  : — 

The  following  letters  were  read  at  the  Ballinasloe 
meeting : — 

“Loughrea,  Nov.  15,  1879. 

“ My  dear  Father  M‘Keigue — In  reply  to  your  commu- 
nication, I cordially  approve  of  your  meeting  as  a means  of 
indicating  to  the  Government  that  their  primary  duty  is  to 
utilise  the  resources  of  the  country  to  save  the  lives  of  the 
people.  A dereliction  of  this  obligation  may  lead  to  cala- 
mitous results  in  the  present  critical  emergency.  With  the 
memories  of  the  last  great  famine  fresh  in  my  mind,  I shud- 
der to  think  of  the  consequences  that  may  ensue  if  the  people 
are  left  again  to  the  operation  of  the  Poor-law  system,  which 
implies  the  abandonment  of  home — the  witnessing  the 
ploughshare  uprooting  the  old  rooftrees,  hallowed  by  so  many 
endearing  associations,  and  entering  by  one  door  those  fatal 
workhouses  to  be  carried  out  at  another  in  a few  weeks  for 
burial  in  shroudless,  coffinless  grave-pits ; or,  on  the  other 
hand,  to  see  money  squandered,  and  thousands  of  lives 
sacrificed  in  useless  and  often  noxious  public  works.  The 
people  need  not  ask  eleemosynary  aid  from  private  or  public 
sources.  They  are  able  and  willing  to  earn  the  wages  of 

P 


226  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

honest  work,  and  there  are  abundant  sources  on  every  side 
for  their  profitable  employment. 

“ The  Government  have  now  a grand  opportunity  of 
renovating  the  face  of  the  country  by  inaugurating  a system 
of  reproductive  operations  that  will  not  cost  the  State  one 
penny,  whilst  at  the  same  time  they  will  profit  the  owners 
and  occupiers  of  land  and  increase  the  revenues  of  the  Ex- 
chequer. Now  is  the  hour  for  bold  and  wise  statesmanship. 
Will  the  present  Government  grasp  the  opportunity  of  laying 
the  foundation  of  solid  industry  in  this  country,  and  thus  dry 
up  the  resources  of  agrarian  discontent  ? 

“ Why  those  cycles  of  famine  in  Ireland  ? There  are 
millions  of  waste  but  reclaimable  lands.  Why  not  reclaim 
them,  and  settle  upon  them  an  industrious  peasant  pro- 
prietary ? Why  not  by  the  arterial  drainage  dry  up  the  soil 
and  sweeten  the  herbage  for  innocuous  pasturage,  the  want 
of  which  is  causing  such  havoc  in  stock  through  the  country  ? 
Why  not  aid  in  developing  our  utterly  inadequate  railway 
system  ? Why  not  give  facilities  to  the  tenants  to  thorough 
drain  and  improve  their  holdings  and  habitations  ? In  Eng- 
land the  owners  of  land  do  all  this.  In  the  present  state  of 
the  law  fully  90  per  cent,  of  the  tenants  are  excluded  from 
borrowing  from  the  Board  of  Works.  None  can  borrow  but 
landlords  and  tenants  with  a lease  of  forty  years  unexpired, 
and  no  less  a sum  than  ^100  can  be  obtained  on  loan. 
Why  not  give  tenants  with  restrictions  as  to  amount  borrowed, 
and  protection  for  mutual  rights,  facilities  for  making,  as  in 
England,  the  improvements  which  owners  have  not  made 
and  are  not  making  in  this  country  ? Why  not  improve  the 
harbours  about  the  coasts  ? 

“Your  resolutions  are  moderate  in  tone  and  well  con- 
sidered. There  is  a stern  inflexibility  of  resolve  in  the  men 
of  Ballinasloe  and  its  vicinity  which  will,  I am  confident, 
urge  them  to  press  those  considerations  upon  our  Govern- 


Irish  Priests  and  the  Land  Agitation . 227 

ment  with  respectful  but  determined  energy.  To  prevent 
the  recurrence  of  these  periodical  famines  the  land  system 
requires  a radical  change.  Hence  the  tenants  must  be  rooted 
in  the  soil  as  the  prelude  of  a large  increase  in  the  number 
of  peasant  proprietors.  All  these  beneficial  reforms  can  be 
attained  by  peaceable  agitation  within  the  lines  of  the  Con- 
stitution. *By  energetic  action  on  the  part  of  our  represen- 
tatives much  has  been  already  gained  ; and  more,  including 
Home  Rule,  will  be  attained  if  the  constituencies  are  true 
to  their  own  grave  responsibilities.  The  policy  of  inaction 
has  been  weighed  in  the  balance  and  found  wanting. 

“I  am,  faithfully  yours, 

“ Patrick  Duggan. 

“Rev.  John  M‘Keigue,  C.C.,  Secretary.” 


“St.  Jarlath’s,  Tuam,  Nov.  19,  1879. 

“ Rev.  Dear  Sir — The  public  and  patriotic  action  of  the 
clergy  and  people  of  Ballinasloe  has  never  been  backward 
in  steadily  urging  on  the  alien  rulers  of  our  country  their 
manifest  duty  with  respect  to  the  seasonable  relief  of  our 
suffering  people  in  years  of  general  distress  like  the  present. 

“ In  pressing  our  claims  to  relief  we  must  not  be  con- 
sidered mendicants,  prostrate  at  the  feet  of  our  haughty 
neighbours  ; neither  should  we  be  called  upon  to  display 
our  gratitude  before  a single  favour  is  conferred  upon  us. 
Rather  let  us  be  looked  upon  as  a nation  justly  claiming  a 
portion  of  the  taxes  of  our  own  country  which,  by  a process 
of  financial  jugglery  unknown  to  honest  men,  are  annually 
transferred  to  the  British  Exchequer  instead  of  having  them 
employed  for  national  purposes  at  home,  such  as,  at  the 


228 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


present  moment,  the  relief  of  impending  want,  the  reclama- 
tion of  waste  land,  arterial  drainage,  and  the  construction  of 
railroads  in  remote  districts.  When  those  benefits  are  be- 
stowed upon  us,  their  acknowledgment  on  our  part  will  be 
proportionate  to  such  favours. 

“ Had  Ireland  her  own  domestic  Parliament,  legislating 
for  the  common  weal,  and  dispensing  relief  with  paternal 
solicitude  in  the  hour  of  need,  those  ever-recurring  years  of 
distress  and  famine  would  be  unheard  of  in  this  country,  as 
in  all  civilised  nations  where  the  well-being  of  the  people  is 
the  patriotic  object  generously  sought  for  by  their  represen- 
tatives in  their  own  Parliament,  unlike  socially  wretched  and 
down-trodden  Ireland,  whose  fate,  in  modern  times,  has  been 
divided  by  Saxon  gentlemen  confessedly  ignorant  of  our 
wants,  or,  what  is  still  worse,  heedless  of  our  very  neces- 
sities, especially  whenever  the  real  or  pretended  welfare  of 
their  own  country  is  concerned. 

“By  all  means  let  the  people  be  rooted  in  the  soil  of 
their  native  land  ; let  their  pecuniary  relations  with  their 
landlords  be  divided  by  periodical  valuation  ; let  those  and 
similar  well-digested  projects  be  demanded  with  vigour  and 
earnestness  by  means  of  a constitutional  and  healthy  organ- 
isation of  the  political  power  of  the  people.  With  the  view 
of  realising  those  social  blessings  let  energy,  activity,  and 
the  old  principles,  so  unjustly  censured  by  dishonest  and 
crafty  politicians,  of  independent  opposition  to  all  British 
parties  by  Irish  members  of  Parliament  be  vigorously  re- 
quired of  them  as  a condition  to  senatorial  honours  by  their 
constituents  at  the  approaching  general  election,  and  the 
disorganisation  recently  witnessed  with  pain,  of  what  should 
be  a compact  body,  will  no  longer  dishonour  our  country  in 
a foreign  legislature. 

“ At  the  same  time  Irishmen  at  home  and  abroad  must 
never  forget  that  without  their  own  independent  Parliament 


Irish  Priests  and  the  Land  Agitation.  229 

legislating  not  for  a class,  but  for  the  welfare  of  Irishmen 
regardless  of  all  British  interests,  the  people  of  this  land 
must  ever  remain  the  slaves  of  their  powerful  neighbours, 
and  can  never  ascend  to  the  intellectual  and  social  heights 
to  which  they  are  entitled  to  ascend  by  the  genius  and  virtues 
of  their  race. — I remain,  rev.  dear  sir,  your  faithful  servant, 

“ John,  Archbishop  of  Tuam.” 


“Sligo,  Nov.  16,  1879. 

“Rev.  Dear  Sir, — In  reply  to  your  favour  of  the  13th 
inst.,  relative  to  the  public  meeting  to  be  held  at  Ballinasloe 
on  Sunday  next,  I am  happy  to  express  my  approval  of  the 
resolutions  to  be  proposed  at  that  meeting,  and  of  which  you 
have  kindly  sent  me  a printed  copy.  In  substance,  and 
almost  in  terms,  your  four  first  resolutions  coincide  with 
those  which  were  lately  adopted  by  the  bishops  of  Ireland, 
and  presented  to  the  Irish  Government  by  a deputation  of 
which  I had  the  honour  to  be  a member.  I need  not  say, 
then,  that  I heartily  desire  the  realisation  of  the  views  ex- 
pressed in  those  resolutions;  and  I beg  to  assure  your 
meeting,  including  those  of  my  own  flock  who  will  attend  it, 
that  my  best  efforts  shall  be  unceasingly  directed,  in  accord- 
ance with  those  views,  to  the  relief  and  welfare  of  our 
people. 

“ It  is  simply  our  duty  to  guide  and  assist  our  flocks  to 
obtain  by  every  legitimate  means,  not  only  the  repeal  of  the 
oppressive  laws,  by  which  they  have  been  so  long  impover- 
ished and  degraded,  but  the  enjoyment  of  perfect  civil  and 


230  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 

social  liberty  with  their  fellow-subjects,  without  which  there 
can  be  neither  contentment  nor  prosperity  in  our  country. 
History  attests,  and  our  own  experience  proves,  that  if  the 
mass  of  the  people,  especially  the  cultivators  of  the  soil,  are 
not  treated  with  justice  and  humanity  by  the  upper  classes, 
if  their  rights  are  not  acknowledged  and  protected  by  the 
Legislature,  the  result  may  be,  sooner  or  later,  discontent 
and  hatred,  ending  in  social  disruption  and  misery.  It  is, 
therefore,  the  interest  as  well  as  the  duty  of  all  classes,  with- 
out distinction  of  creed,  to  bring  speedily  about  a peaceful 
constitutional  change  in  our  laws,  and  especially  our  land 
laws,  which  will  give  full  security  to  the  occupier  and  tiller 
of  the  soil,  and  allow  him  to  bestow  on  it  his  toil  and  capital, 
so  as  to  derive  from  it  an  adequate  support. 

“That  change  can  be  effected  in  one  of  two  ways — both 
of  them  already  familiar  to  the  public — either  by  allowing 
and  helping  the  tenant  to  become  the  owner  of  the  land  he 
occupies,  or  by  securing  him  in  its  tenancy  at  an  equitable 
rent.  That  such  a change  depends  entirely  on  the  will  of 
Parliamant  is  admitted  by  all ; and  it  is  my  conviction  that 
if  it  were  earnestly  and  perseveringly  demanded  by  the 
people  and  their  united  representatives  it  would  be  soon 
granted  by  Parliament. 

“ Hoping  that  the  speakers  at  your  meeting  will  sustain 
the  just  and  temperate  character  of  the  resolutions  to  be 
proposed,  and  thus  promote  the  great  objects  for  which  the 
meeting  is  to  be  held,  I remain,  rev.  and  dear  sir,  your  faith- 
ful servant, 

“ L.  Gillooley.” 


In  acknowledging  the  receipt  of  a grant  made 
by  the  Liverpool  Committee  for  the  Relief  of 


Irish  Priests  and  the  Land  Agitation.  2 3 1 

Distress  in  Ireland  the  Bishop  of  Clonfert 
writes : — 

“ Loughrea,  Co.  Galway,  May  25th,  1880. 

“ My  Dear  Sir, — On  the  part  of  our  local  committee 
and  the  poor  of  the  parish,  I tender  to  you  and  the  commit- 
tee in  Liverpool  our  united  thanks  for  cheque  for  ^20.  I 
really  look  forward  to  the  crucial  months  thut  must  intervene 
before  the  harvest  with  anxious  alarm.  Want  is  widespread 
and  intense,  and  if  the  coming  harvest  be  another  failure  I 
shudder  to  look  into  the  future.  An  organic  change  in  our 
land  system  is  needed  to  prevent  the  recurrence  of  those 
famines  which,  unfortunately,  have  become  normal  in  our 
social  condition.  The  poor  creatures  are  willing  and  anxious 
to  work.  We  have  by  deputations  of  bishops,  M.P.’s,  and 
otherwise,  solicited  the  attention  of  the  Executive  to  the  ne- 
cessity of  devising  public  works  of  utility.  Opportunities 
lie  scattered  around  us  on  every  side  that  would  give  em- 
ployment profitable  to  the  occupier,  the  landlord,  and  the 
public  exchequer.  But  no  use.  Hence,  no  wonder  that 
discontent,  as  well  as  destitution,  prevails  amongst  the 
masses  of  the  Irish  people.  Be  assured  that  misery  arising 
from  the  culpable  indifference  with  which  our  great  natural 
industrial  resources  are  neglected  is  the  root  of  the  discon- 
tent around  on  every  side.  God  grant  that  the  eyes  of  our 
rulers  be  opened  before  evils,  future  but  not  distant,  come 
upon  our  country.  If,  during  the  coming  hard  months,  the 
resources  at  the  disposal  of  your  benevolent  committee  put 
it  in  your  power  to  aid  us,  I am  sure  we  will  not  be  forgotten. 
—Yours,  &c., 

“ Patrick  Duggan,  Bishop  of  Clonfert 
“ J.  Hand,  Esq.” 


232  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

“ A meeting  was  held  in  St.  Mary’s  Hall,  Belfast,  on  the 
17  th  November,  to  protest  against  the  action  of  the  Govern- 
ment, to  declare  sympathy  with  Mr.  Parnell  and  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Land  League,  and  to  organise  a defence  fund. 
The  hall  was  crowded.  The  Chair  was  occupied  by  the 
Rev.  M.  H.  Cahill,  C.C.  Mr.  Miskelly,  Honorary  Secretary 
of  the  meeting,  read  the  following  letter  from  the  most  Rev. 
Dr.  Dorrian,  Bishop  of  Down  and  Connor  : — 

“ In  reply  to  your  circular,  I beg  to  say  that  the  traversers 
have  a right  to  at  least  a fair  trial.  They  are  engaged  in 
what  they  say  is  a legal  and  constitutional  effort  within  the 
moral  laws  to  remedy  a great  social  evil,  rescue  from  misery 
and  starvation  thousands  of  our  people,  and  elevate  our 
country  from  hunger,  mockery,  and  contempt,  to  its  proper 
rank  in  civilisation  amongst  the  nations  of  the  world.  This 
is  surely  worthy  of  approval.  The  Government,  therefore, 
might  have  done  better  to  have  begun  by  removing  the  cause 
of  our  wretchedness  and  discontent,  and  formulating  the  law 
to  give  to  every  tiller  of  the  soil  a motive  to  improve  and  pro- 
tect his  holding ; but,  as  I have  fully  explained  my  views  on 
this  question,  according  to  our  religious  teaching,  in  my  last 
letter  and  address,  1 shall  not  further  trouble  you  than  to 
enclose  ^5  to  the  Parnell  Defence  Fund,  and  shall  be  glad 
to  see  the  case  fully  ventilated — misrepresentations  as  well 
as  misunderstandings  removed.” 

At  the  Clonmel  meeting,  where  Mr.  P.  J. 
Smyth,  M.P.,  presided,  the  following  letter 
from  the  Archbishop  of  Cashel  was  read  : — 

“ My  dear  Father  Ryan, — It  is  well,  I think,  to  let  the 
hereditary  legislators  of  England  know  what  we  in  Ireland 


Irish  Priests  and  the  Land  Agitation.  233 

think  of  their  lordships’  latest  manifesto  of  hostility  against 
us.  It  is  well,  also  it  is  fit  and  proper,  that  Tipperary 
should  take  the  initiative  in  the  matter,  sounding  the  first 
note  of  defiance  and  denunciation,  and  by  further  more  pro- 
claiming to  the  peers  of  the  realm  their  determination  to  live 
in  the  land  in  which  they  were  born,  and  to  be  fed  together 
with  their  families  out  of  the  produce  of  fields  which  they 
alone  have  tilled  and  toiled  upon  and  rendered  fertile. 
‘ The  husbandman  that  labours,’  says  St.  Paul,  2 Tim.  ii.  6, 
‘ must  first  partake  of  the  fruits  of  the  soil.’  ‘No,’  says  the 
English  House  of  Lords ; ‘ St.  Paul  is  wrong  in  that,  and 
was  obviously  socialistic  in  his  teachings ; for  the  rent  must 
be  our  fruit,  however  ill  it  may  fare  with  the  husbandman, 
and,  as  certain  dangerous  theories  are  being  propounded 
nowadays  by  irreligious  men,  we  wish,  by  this  our  over- 
whelming vote,  to  have  it  made  known  to  them  and  to  the 
empire  that  even  for  an  hour  we  will  not  part  with  any 
chartered  privileges  of  our  class,  and  that,  consequently,  our 
wretched  Irish  dependants  may  now,  as  ever,  be  mercilessly 
flung  out  by  us  on  the  roadside,  because  they  cannot  pos- 
sibly manage  at  one  and  the  same  time  to  pay  us  our  rent 
and  prevent  their  families  from  perishing.’  There  is,  besides, 
a grave  constitutional  question  now  at  stake.  That  ques- 
tion, will,  no  doubt,  be  dealt  with  at  the  proper  time  in  the 
proper  place.  The  great  statesman,  now  happily  convales- 
cent, who  stands  at  the  head  of  her  Majesty’s  ministers,  and 
whose  goodwill  to  Ireland  has  been  abundantly  made  mani- 
fest, will  see  in  due  course  that  the  voice  of  the  people’s 
representatives  shall  not  be  trifled  with  or  set  aside.  For 
the  rest,  feel  assured,  that  the  men  of  Tipperary  will  state 
their  views  at  Wednesday’s  meeting  plainly  and  fairly,  with- 
out bluster  or  exaggeration,  or  the  senseless  parading  of  any 
fanciful  theories,  and,  above  all,  they  will  give  no  pledge  or 
promise  which  they  are  not  prepared  at  all  hazards  manfully 


234  7 he  Case  of  Ireland  stated, 

to  redeem. — I am,  my  dear  Father  Ryan,  your  very  faithful 
servant, 

“ T.  W.  Croke,  Archbishop  of  Cashel. 

“To  the  Rev.  John  Ryan,  New  Inn.” 

This  letter  was  the  subject  of  no  little  com- 
ment and  correspondence  in  the  English  papers. 
The  landlords  were  terrified.  They  knew  well 
that  if  priests  and  people  united  in  their  demand 
for  legal  justice  to  Ireland,  that  legal  justice 
would  be  done.  Hitherto  they  had  the  Irish 
people  at  a tremendous  disadvantage.  The 
priests  would  not  countenance  a secret  society, 
they  denounced  oath-bound  associations ; and 
the  people  not  having  the  support  of  their 
clergy,  in  fact  being  opposed  by  them,  were 
powerless.  No  wonder  that  those  who  could 
at  one  sweep  of  their  autocratic  power  add 

10,000  to  the  value  of  an  estate,  at  the  cost  of 
a starving  people,  should  look  in  amazement  at 
the  bold  statement  that  men  had  a right  to  live 
first,  and  to  pay  rent  afterwards.1 

We  have  already  given  the  letter  of  the 
Right  Rev.  Dr.  Duggan,  addressed  to  the  sec- 


! Mr.  Russell,  in  his  letters  to  the  Daily  Telegraph , states,  that  Lord 
Lansdowne’s  agent  boasted  how  he  had  in  one  day  added  ^10,000  to 
the  value  of  his  master’s  property  by  raising  the  rent. 


Irish  Priests  and  the  Land  Agitation . 235 

retary  of  the  land  meeting  at  Loughrea ; still 
we  give  one  short  extract  from  it  here  again, 
since  it  contains  in  few  words,  the  only  and 
simple  demand  of  the  people  of  Ireland  : — 

“ Loughrea,  October  2,0th. 

“ Sir, — My  earnest  desire  has  been  and  still  is,  to  witness 
a settlement  of  the  land  question  on  principles  that  will 
secure  to  the  owners  and  occupiers  those  rights  that  have 
their  sanction  in  the  laws  of  justice.  Less  than  this  neither 
should  accept.  More  than  this  neither  should  claim.” 

We  might  occupy  the  present  volume  with 
the  letters  of  priests  on  the  state  of  Ireland.  A 
few  such  must  suffice. 

The  following  letter  was  addressed  to  and 
published  in  the  Freemans  Journal  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1880  : — 

“ February  19  th. 

“ Sir, — In  the  midst  of  cries  of  distress  around  me,  in 
the  Cavan  portion  of  my  parish — while  Protestant  and 
Catholics  here,  as  elsewhere,  are  struggling  to  keep  together 
the  soul  and  body  of  the  victims  of  this  year's  visitation — I 
was  hurried  off  to  the  Meath  portion,  no  less  distressed,  to 
witness  a scene — the  rirst  in  my  life — a heartless  eviction  of 
six  whole  families,  thirty  souls  in  all,  of  ages  ranging  from 
eighty-three  to  two  years.  When  has  this  taken  place  ? and 
why  ? must  be  asked,  and  must  be  answered.  Am  I to  be 
silent  and  yet  to  witness  such  a scene  in  my  parish  this  day  ? 
Surely  not.  And  I claim,  respectfully,  a space  in  the  public 
journal,  the  Freeman. 


236 


The  Case  of  Ireland  staled. 


44  At  twelve  o’clock  to-day,  in  the  midst  of  a drizzling 
rain,  when  every  man’s  lips  are  busy  discussing  how  relief 
can  be  carried  to  this  home  and  that,  an  imposing  spectacle 
presented  itself  through  a quiet  part  of  the  parish  of  Kings- 
court.  A carriage  contained  Mr.  Hussey,  jun.,  son  of  the 
agent  of  the  estate  of  Lord  Gormanstown.  Behind  and 
before  the  carriage  came  about  a dozen  of  outside  cars,  with 
a resident  magistrate,  an  inspector  of  police,  about  forty  of 
her  Majesty’s  force,  the  sheriff,  and  some  dozen  of  as  rapa- 
cious looking  drivers  and  grippers  as  ever  I laid  my  eyes 
upon. 

“ There  is  dead  silence  at  the  halt  before  the  first  doomed 
door.  That  silence  was  broken  by  myself  addressing  the 
agent,  craving  to  let  the  poor  people  in  again  after  the  vindi- 
cation of  the  law,  when,  to  my  disgust,  but  not  to  my  dis- 
may, one  of  the  crowd  is  observed  by  me  taking  notes. 

“ The  sheriff  formally  asks — 4 Have  you  the  rent  ?’  The 
trembling  answer  is — 4 My  God ! how  could  I have  the 
whole  rent ; and  such  a rent,  on  such  a soil,  and  in  such  a 
year  as  this?’  4 Out,  out,’  is  the  word;  and  right  heartily 
the  grippers  go  to  work.  On  the  dung  pit  is  flung  the 
scanty  furniture,  bed  and  bedding;  a search  is  made  for 
pig  or  goat,  and  forthwith  they  share  the  fate  of  the  evicted 
master,  the  door  is  nailed,  and  the  imposing  army  marches 
on  to  the  next  holding,  till  every  house  has  been  visited  and 
every  soul  sent  forth. 

44  At  this  moment  there  is  a downpour  of  rain  on  that 
miserable  furniture — on  that  poor  bed  and  bedding — and  an 
old  man,  whose  generations  have  passed  their  simple  lives 
in  that  house,  is  sitting  on  a stone  outside,  with  his  head 
buried  in  his  hands,  thinking  of  the  eighty-three  years  gone 
by.  And  are  those  tenants  to  blame?  No;  it  is  on  the 
records  of  this  parish  that  they  were  about  the  most  simple- 
minded,  hardworking,  honest,  and  virtuous.  Their  only 


Irish  Priests  and  the  Land  Agitation . 237 

guilt  is  this,  that  an  4 agreement’  with  my  Lord  Gormanston, 
some  five  years  ago,  disfranchising  them  of  any  claim  under 
the  Land  Act  and  involving  an  intolerable  rise  of  rent, 
together  with  the  common  misfortunes  of  the  country  these 
few  years  past,  and  this  in  particular  has  left  them  entirely 
unable  to  pay  the  entire  rent  of  this  year.  Yes,  entire  rent — 
the  half,  the  ninth-tenths,  of  the  rent  would  not  be  accepted. 
Priests  joined  the  poor  tenantry  in  petitioning  again  and 
again.  No  answer  was  given,  but  ‘ Have  you  the  whole 
rent  ? Have  you  law  expenses  ? If  not,  out  you  go.’ 
“Deliberately  I say  it — this  work  may  invite  Russian 
Nihilism  in  Ireland  ; and  deliberately,  I ask  the  government, 
whom  are  they  to  blame  for  this  visitation  ? They  may 
smile  at  the  distant  visitor  being  threatened  upon  us  ; but 
there  is  a rapidity  of  thought  abroad  to  which  men  were  not 
accustomed  twelve  months  ago. 

‘‘Joseph  Flood,  P.P.” 

Many  of  the  English  people  are  ardent  ad- 
mirers of  Victor  Hugo.  The  Freeman  s J our nal 
gave,  at  some  length,  a report  of  an  interview 
which  their  special  correspondent  had  with  this 
gentleman  and  with  M.  Louis  Blanc  on  the 
Irish  question.  Here  is  M.  Hugo’s  reply  to 
one  question  : — 

“The  custom  which  is  prevalent  over  in  Ireland  I 
understand  to  be  that  by  which  eight  or  nine  hundred 
persons  own  the  entire  soil.  That  system  means  this — 
there  are  in  Ireland  eight  or  nine  hundred  lords  and  some- 
what over  five  million  slaves  (esclaves).  A miserably  small 
fraction  tyrannise — the  rest,  *>.,  the  vast  majority  are  the 
automatons  that  move  at  the  beck  of  the  fraction.  That 


238  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

land  system  is,  I have  no  hesitation  in  affirming,  a glaringly 
unjust  and  absurd  one.  It  is  unjust,  inasmuch  as  it  pampers 
and  enriches  the  minority  of  a people  at  the  expense  of  the 
majority,  and  is,  consequently,  an  outrage  upon  justice.  It 
is  absurd,  for  it  contains  an  anomaly,  and  must  have  the 
effect  of  impoverishing  the  country.  I say,  and  I hold,  that 
a people  who  live  under  such  a system  are  willingly,  and  with 
eyes  open,  advancing  on  the  high  road  to  political,  if  not 
personal,  suicide.  You  know  we  broke  partnership  with  that 
land  system  at  the  era  of  our  great  Revolution.  Before  that 
Revolution  the  French  were  accursed  with  the  same  system 
which  at  present  afflicts  you  Irish.” 

Now,  it  is  precisely  because  the  Irish  hier- 
archy and  clergy  wish  to  save  Ireland  from  any 
sanguinary  method  of  demanding  justice  that 
they  support  one  which  they  believe  demands  it 
legally.  And  England  owes  them  a debt  of 
gratitude  for  their  beneficent  action.  It  is  their 
love  of  peace  which  makes  them  desire  a peace- 
ful settlement  of  a burning  question.  It  is 
their  supreme  duty  to  do  all  in  their  power  to 
promote  peace,  and  until  the  poor  in  Ireland 
are  protected  by  law  as  well  as  the  rich  there 
cannot  be  peace.  Even  the  peaceful  “ Friend” 
has  joined  issue  on  this  point,  and  no  one  has 
written  more  strongly  than  Mr.  Tuke  on  the 
whole  subject.  He  says  : 

“ Mayo  was  one  of  the  proclaimed  districts,  and  has  been 
the  centre  of  the  great  wave  of  anti-rent  agitation  which  last 


Irish  Priests  and  the  Land  Agitation.  239 

autumn  swept  across  the  country,  and  which  has  been  pro. 
ductive  of  so  much  evil  fruit.  The  districts  around  Clare- 
morris  and  Swinford  seem  especially  disturbed,  and  it  may 
be  noted  that  there  is  hardly  a resident  landlord  in  these 
districts,  and  that  therefore  the  people  are  more  left  to 
themselves  than  is  the  case  where  a good  resident  landlord 
exists.  Here,  too,  the  misery  of  the  population  has  been 
very  marked,  and  the  absence  of  men  of  independent  posi- 
tion or  judgment  is  most  seriously  felt  in  the  administration 
of  the  Poor  Law.  The  difference  in  the  disaffected  state  of 
the  people  in  North  and  South  Mayo  further  illustrates  this. 
In  South  Mayo,  from  Westport  eastward,  the  chief  landlords 
are  nearly  all  non-residents — five  or  more — whose  total 
rentals  taken  out  of  the  county  cannot  be  less  than  eighty 
thousand  a yeard  Captain  Knox,  at  Ballinrobe,  is  an 
honourable  exception  to  this,  and  he,  as  chairman  of  the 
union,  and  also  of  the  relief  committees,  is  working  hard  in 
that  district.  It  is  in  South  Mayo  that  the  great  seat  of 
disturbance  exists,  and  where,  as  I have  noticed,  the  largest 
body  of  police  is  quartered,  and  where  there  are  many  men 
who  dare  not  stir  out  of  their  houses  without  their  escort. 
In  North  Mayo  a less  hostile  spirit,  as  a rule,  exists.  Many 
of  the  landlords  are  resident,  and  exercise  a beneficial  in- 
fluence over  their  poorer  neighbours  and  tenants.  Sir  C. 
K.  Gore,  Colonel  Knox,  and  others,  are  instances  of  this. 
Nor  must  it  be  overlooked,  in  reference  to  the  disaffected 


1 In  Connaught,  427  owners  of  1,111,000  acres,  the  annual  value  of 
which  is  ,£283,000,  are  non-resident ; whilst  925  proprietors,  with 
1,750,000  acres,  of  an  annual  value  of  .£632,000,  are  resident,  or  partly 
resident,  in  the  province.  In  Ulster,  517  owners  of  1,400,000  acres  of 
land,  with  an  annual  value  of  ,£778,000,  are  absentees ; whilst  1259, 
having  2,100,000  acres,  and  an  annual  value  of  1,355,000  are  resident. 


240  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

condition  of  Mayo,  that  it  was  in  this  county  that  the  greatest 
number  of  evictions  occurred  in  1846-50;  thousands  were 
thus  turned  out  of  house  and  home,  and  the  records  of  the 
Famine  year  have  left  a tale  of  suffering  and  sorrow  which 
will  not  be  soon  forgotten.” 1 

A recent  number  of  the  Graphic  has  a picture 
of  an  Irish  landlord  bidding  a pathetic  farewell 
to  his  friends  before  he  goes  on  his  round  of 
rent  gathering  or  evicting  his  tenants  ; but  who 
shall  picture  the  bitter  agony  and  anguish  of  the 
farewell  of  millions  of  people,  driven  from  their 
homes  by  the  irresponsible  fiat  of  the  same  land- 
lords. If  we  are  all  descendants  of  the  brute 
creation,  one  animal,  no  doubt,  does  no  moral 
wrong  when  he  desolates  the  homes  of  hun- 
dreds ; but,  if  we  are  all  Christians,  one  Chris- 
tian man’s  feelings  and  his  rights  are  sacred  as 
those  of  his  fellow-Christians. 

I am  unwilling  to  burden  the  reader  with 
further  documentary  evidence ; but  as  Irish 
papers  are  rarely  read  in  England,  and  as  Eng- 


1 The  Census  (in  round  numbers)  of  the  population  of  Connaught 
shows  the  following  remarkable  figures  : — 


1841 

1851 

1861 

1871 


Inhabited  Houses. 

243.000 
, a69,ooo 

, 163,000 

153.000 


Population. 

..  ..  1,418,000 

. . ..  1,100,000 

..  ..  913,000 

..  ..  846,000 

Tube's  Report , 1880,  p. 


81. 


• • 


Irish  Priests  and  the  Land  Agitation.  241 

Jish  papers  give  only  one  side  of  the  question,  I 
would  do  an  injustice  if  I did  not  place  such 
matters  before  them  fully.  I will,  therefore,  give 
a few  documents  to  elucidate  this  point. 

At  a recent  meeting  of  the  Land  League  a 
letter  was  read  from  the  Rev.  Daniel  Monahan, 
P.P.,  Drumcondra,  Meath,  in  reference  to 
threatened  evictions  in  that  county.  The  rev. 
gentleman  states  : — 

“ This  quiet  and  peaceful  district  was  excited  and  dis^ 
turbed  by  the  apprehension  of  the  threatened  evictions.  In 
Cloughnea  there  are  84  tenants ; 24  of  these  have  been 
relieved  weekly  by  our  committee  here  the  last  month.  The 
remaining  tenants,  with  a few  exceptions,  by  reason  of  the 
depression  of  the  times  and  the  unjust  agreement  of  1874, 
which  nearly  doubled  their  rents,  are  at  present  in  very  poor 
circumstances.  I was  suddeny  called,  upon  the  eve  of  St 
Patrick’s  Day,  to  witness  the  sad  and  painful  scene  of  the 
eviction  of  four  families  from  their  homes.  The  resident 
magistrate,  sub-sheriff,  inspector,  with  a number  of  her 
Majesty’s  force,  grippers,  &c.,  were  in  attendance  to  carry 
out  the  arbitrary  wish  of  one  individual.  But,  happily  for 
those  poor  tenants,  who  are  good,  honest,  and  industrious, 
the  evictions  did  not  take  place.  In  the  case  of  Thomas 
Farrell,  his  rent  was  paid  by  his  friends  up  to  the  25  th  of 
March  ; in  the  case  of  Bryan  Nuity,  by  his  sister ; in  the 
other  cases  of  Andrew  Lalor  and  John  M‘Cartney,  I paid 
part  and  gave  security  for  the  remainder.  There  are  other 
evictions  impending  on  this  property,  so  that  some  are 
voluntarily  leaving  who  find  it  impossible  to  pay  such  high 

Q 


242  The  Case  of  Ireland  seated. 

rents.  For  instance,  on  one  holding  the  old  rent,  which  was 
;£6o,  was  raised  to  ^81,  the  valuation  being  only  ^5 2 

The  following  letter  shows  too  painfully  the 
utter  indifference  of  Irish  landlords  to  the  distress 
of  their  tenants  in  the  Famine  : — 

“to  the  chairman  of  the  land  league. 

“ 10th  November,  1880. 

“ Sir — Will  you  please  accept  the  enclosed  £ 1 note,  my 
subscription  to  the  funds  of  the  Land  League,  and  enrol  my 
name  as  a member.  I am  slow  to  take  an  active  part  in 
any  political  movement ; but,  to  my  mind,  the  time  has 
come  for  action,  even  in  the  timid  and  retiring.  I owe  the 
Land  League  a debt  of  gratitude  for  their  prompt  and  gene- 
rous contributions  to  our  relief  committee,  by  which  many  of 
my  flock  were  rescued  from  starvation  and  death  during  the 
last  awful  season.  In  the  face  of  famine  itself  the  rents  were 
paid  up  to  some  twelve  landlords  who  hold  property  in  my 
parish,  and  yet  only  one  was  found  to  contribute  a single 
shilling  to  save  the  lives  of  the  people,  and  the  proprietor  of 
Grenanstown  estate  was  that  one.  I have  painful  recollec- 
tions of  the  ever-memorable  famine  of  1847,  and  I know 
what  Irish  landlords  can  do.  Day  and  night,  and  night  and 
day,  I had  to  administer  the  sacred  rites  of  religion  to  the 
victims  of  their  rapacity.  With  an  unpitying  eye  and  hard 
hearts  they  beheld  the  people  famishing,  the  manhood  of  the 
country  flying  with  their  lives  to  a foreign  land,  and  the  help- 
less poor  falling  down  to  die  like  flies  under  their  feet.  The 
people  then  had  no  heart,  no  centre  of  action  ; nobody  like 
the  League  to  lean  on  ; no  leader  like  Mr.  Parnell,  who  had 
the  courage  of  his  cmvictions,  to  teach  them  the  secret  of 


Irish  Priests  and  the  Land  Agitation . 243 

success.  We  are  all  very  quiet  here.  If  not  ‘peace  and 
plenty,’  at  all  events  peace  and  poverty  rule  supreme.  And 
yet,  a local  landlord  and  an  extensive  land  agent  was  pro- 
minently present  at  the  Castle  of  Dublin  among  the  “ 105” 
maligners  of  the  people.  Another  gentleman — a land  agent, 
too,  in  the  midst  of  “ law  and  order” — surrounds  himself  with 
policemen,  doing  a friendly  turn  to  his  friend,  and  bringing 
a bad  repute  on  a peaceful  district.  Notices  to  quit  have 
been  served,  and  already  one  of  my  parishoners  is  an  out- 
cast on  the  world.  The  sheriff  has  quenched  the  fire  and 
locked  the  door  of  James  Guilfoyle,  of  Cappa.  He  offered 
his  landlord  ^13  out  of  the  rack-rent  of  ^16  10s.  and  all  to 
no  purpose.  This  poor  man  clings  to  the  “ old  sod  ” with 
a life  and  death  grip.  He  cooks  his  scanty  meal  by  the  side 
of  a ditch,  he  rolls  his  cart  under  shelter  and  sleeps  in  it, 
“ like  a warrior  taking  his  rest.”  Though  he  is  persecuted 
by  summons  after  summons  to  the  petty  sessions,  still  he 
fondly  clings  to  the  hope  of  being  restored  to  the  shelter  of 
the  old  rooftree.  No  matter  what  the  Government  do  to 
prosecute  the  Land  League,  on  the  cause  must  go,  until 
justice  is  done  the  people.  ‘ Salus  populi  suprema  lex.’ — I 
am,  yours,  &c., 

“ Edmund  O’Leary, 

“ Toomevara,  County  Tipperary.” 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Rice,  P.P.,  of  Chari eville,  Co. 
Cork,  at  a public  meeting,  said  : — 

“ He  had  for  years  regarded  rack-renting  and  eviction  as 
one  of  the  greatest  curses  and  scourges  in  Ireland.  He 
said  one  of  the  greatest  scourges  because  there  were  others. 
He  regarded  the  destruction  of  their  manufactures  as  a great 
grievance  and  loss.  He  regarded  the  ruin  of  most  of  their 


244 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 


trades,  and  the  hastening  ruin  of  others  by  Englishmen,  as 
another  scourge,  and  he  regarded  the  denial  to  the  Irish 
people  of  the  advantages  of  education  afforded  to  a rich 
minority  as  another  great  and  intolerable  grievance.” 


At  a meeting  in  the  Queen’s  County,  the 
Very  Rev.  Dr.  Magee,  P.P.,  Stradbally,  pro- 
posed the  following  resolution  : — 

“ ‘ That,  in  the  opinion  of  this  club,  Ireland  can  never  be 
a contented  and  prosperous  nation  so  long  as  the  present 
system  of  land  feudalism  is  maintained.’ 

“ The  Rev.  Dr.  Magee  said,  without  dwelling  on  the  seve- 
ral tortures  and  cruelties  of  land  feudalism,  a subject  now 
threadbare  and  exhausted  by  discussion,  he  would  call  their 
attention  at  once  to  the  crisis  in  which  these  evils  have  re- 
sulted ; a crisis  that  now  fills  all  classes  with  alarm  ; and 
that,  above  all,  threatens  three  millions  of  Irish  tenantry 
with  utter  ruin  and  extermination  if  something  be  not  done, 
and  speedily  and  effectively  done,  to  save  them  (applause). 
Never  in  the  history  of  tenant  disasters  had  Ireland  pre- 
sented a more  ghastly  spectacle.  The  last  cruelty  of  land- 
lord absolutism  is  extermination — when  the  tenant  is  ruined 
by  excessive  rents  and  stripped  of  everything,  then  to  turn 
him  adrift  on  the  world,  bankrupt  and  beggared,  and  this 
seems  the  present  aim  of  landlordism  (hear,  hear).  From 
north  to  south,  from  Wicklow  to  Connemara,  nothing  is  now 
heard  of  but  evictions,  decrees,  processes,  notices  to  quit, 
fights  for  the  harvest,  constabulary  rows,  the  wailing  of 
widows  and  orphans,  violence,  outrage,  and  murder.  What 
a sight  for  the  stranger  who  visits  our  shores.  Meantime 
the  question  arises,  where  is  this  all  to  end,  or  is  there  any 
constitutional  remedy  by  which  the  calamity  may  be  averted? 


Irish  Priests  and  the  Land  Agitation . 245 

In  his  own  parish  there  were  at  this  moment  twenty-five 
unfortunate  tenants  of  the  rack-rented  class  under  decrees 
of  eviction,  execution  stayed  till  the  ides  of  January  next ; 
but  when  the  ides  of  January  come  what  will  become  of 
them,  for  the  present  poor  harvest  can’t  save  them  (ap- 
plause). What  has  given  rise  to  this  state  of  things  ? 
Landlords  tell  us  ’tis  all  the  result  and  curse  of  land  agita- 
tion, and  that  if  these  horrible  agitators  were  banished  all 
would  be  well.  His  simple  answer  was,  land  feudalism, 
and  above  all  the  rack-renting  power  of  the  system,  has  led 
to  all,  and  has  been  ever  at  the  root  of  all  the  disasters, 
beggary,  and  murders  of  Ireland  ; and  he  would  go  further, 
so  long  as  this  power  is  maintained  Ireland  can  never  be 
happy  or  prosperous  (applause).  For  the  last  thirty  years, 
to  go  back  no  farther,  we  have  witnessed  the  ravages  and 
excesses  of  this  deadly  power,  nowhere,  perhaps,  more 
fearfully  carried  out  than  in  the  Queen’s  County  itself.  On 
lands  of  the  most  wretched  character — cold,  perished  bogs, 
and  arid,  barren  hills — lands  valued  at  from  9s.  to  14s.  and 
15s.  the  acre,  he  himself  had  known  rents  to  have  been 
twice  and  thrice,  within  eighteen  years,  squeezed  up,  under 
terror  of  eviction,  to  an  amount  no  mortal  industry,  or  pro- 
cess of  starvation,  or  sparing  could  meet.  Twenty-five, 
50,  80,  and  in  some  instances  even  200  per  cent,  in  excess 
of  the  valuation,  was  added  to  the  rent,  and  no  alternative 
given  to  the  tenant  that  resisted  (cheers  and  murmurs). 
Landlords  and  agents  sometimes  give  out  platitudes,  and 
say  rents  must  be  a free  contract ; no  law  or  valuation 
must  meddle  with  it.  Meantime  the  freedom  given  to  un- 
fortunate tenants  themselves  is  somewhat  like  that  given 
by  the  highwayman  to  his  victim — ‘Your  money  or  your 
life.’  So  with  the  tenant — the  increased  rent,  or  what  is 
equivalent  to  life,  his  home,  his  land,  his  all  (applause). 
For  the  last  thirty  years  this  cruel  process  had  gone  on  ; 


246  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

the  rental  of  Ireland  had  been  screwed  up  to  the  incredible 
and  enormous  sum  of  fifteen  or  sixteen  millions  yearly,  and 
only  that  providence,  as  if  to  put  a stop  to  the  iniquity, 
had,  within  the  last  three  years,  brought  famine  and  sterlity 
on  the  land,  no  man  could  tell  where  this  process  would 
end.  An  end,  however,  has  come,  and  with  it  a new  crisis 
and  new  peril  to  the  tenantry.  *Tis  now  extermination — 
wide-spread  extermination.  The  rack-rents  can’t  by  any 
human  possibility  be  any  longer  paid  unless  stones  and  earth 
be  turned  into  corn  to  pay  them.  The  tenants  may  be  ex- 
terminated, but  these  rents  cannot  be  paid.  The  last  three 
years  of  sterility  and  depression  have  settled  the  question, 
and  no  industry,  no  starvation,  no  sparing,  even  though  the 
tenantry,  in  place  of  luxuriating,  as  Lord  Cion  curry  says,  ‘ on 
poteen  and  potatoes/  lived  on  potatoes  alone  or  Indian 
buck,  can  meet  these  rack-rents.  Just  let  any  generous  and 
high-minded  landlord  look  at  the  condition  of  the  Irish 
tenantry  at  the  present  moment  and  say  can  such  rent  be 
met.  In  all  Europe  they  are  the  most  beggared,  starved, 
and  ruined  race ; their  stock  diminished,  their  capital  gone, 
trying  to  pay  these  rack-rents;  dipped  in  every  bank,  sunk 
in  arrears,  beggars  before  Europe,  Government  lending  them 
the  very  seed  of  the  land;  and  meantime,  what  have  the 
Irish  landlords  being  doing  during  all  this  distress  ? Ask 
any  of  the  types  of  the  exterminating  class  (applause).  In 
the  ancient  Justinian  Code,  if  sterility  or  famine  came  the 
landlord  could  exact  but  half  the  rent ; he  shared  the 
calamity  with  the  tenant.  How  many  landlords  in  Ireland, 
or  of  the  Queen’s  County,  have  adopted  this  rule,  or  even 
reduced  the  rack-rent,  or  blotted  out  its  arrears,  during  the 
last  three  years  of  distress  ? Meantime  the  burning  question 
arises,  Where  is  all  this  to  end,  or  how  are  the  tenantry  of 
Ireland  to  le  saved?” 


Irish  Priests  and  the  Land  Agitation.  247 

The  following  letter  is  an  important  evidence 
of  the  extraordinary  difficulties  our  poor  people 
have  in  obtaining  justice  ; and  it  must  be  re- 
membered that  these  are  not  exceptional  cases. 
How  can  Ireland  be  other  than  disturbed  and 
discontented  when  legal  redress  is  rendered 
almost  unobtainable  ? If  our  poor  people  satis- 
fied the  exorbitant  demands  of  their  landlords 
by  weary  and  exceptional  toil  in  England,  year 
after  year,  surely  in  a year  of  famine  a little 
mercy  might  have  been  shown  them.  And 
certainly  they  do  not  deserve  the  reproach  of 
unwillingness  to  pay  their  rents  or  of  laziness  : — 

“Dunmore,  March  19. 

“ Dear  Sir, — Owing  to  the  great  distress  of  the  year,  I 
am  obliged  to  appeal  to  the  charitable  public  on  behalf  of 
the  Cloondargan  tenants.  To  those  not  familiar  with  the 
history  of  the  case  a few  words  of  explanation  may  be  ne- 
cessary. The  Cloondargan  estate  was  bought  by  Mr. 
Revington,  of  Limerick,  in  1868,  the  rental  at  the  time 
being  ^215  18s  id.  One  of  his  first  acts  was  to  raise  it  to 
^366  os  od  ! in  some  individual  cases  doubling,  in  others 
trebling,  the  former  rents.  These  enormous  rents  the  poor 
serfs,  for  the  luxury  of  a home  in  Ireland,  continued  to  pay 
till  November  last,  when  the  failure  of  their  crops,  the  de- 
pression in  the  price  of  stock,  and,  for  them,  worst  of  all, 
the  dulness  of  trade  in  England,  rendered  the  payment  of 
these  rents  utterly  and  entirely  impossible.  Their  land  is 
very  probably  the  worst  in  all  Ireland ; it  never  yielded  an 


248 


The  Case  of  Irela7id  stated. 


equivalent  for  the  rent,  which  they  always  earned  in  Eng- 
land, and  out  of  5 1 tenants  on  the  entire  estate,  only  two 
could  make  the  rent  off  the  land.  Ejectment  processes 
were  served ; to  which  the  tenants,  after  some  fruitless  efforts 
at  an  arrangement,  entered  defences.  Till  about  this  time 
it  was  thought  that  a tenant  disturbed  for  non-payment  of 
rent  had  no  redress,  but  a clause  seemingly  hidden  away  in 
the  Land  Act  was  discovered,  under  which  tenants  who 
consider  their  rents  exorbitant  have  claims  for  disturbance, 
even  though  evicted  for  non-payment  of  such  rents.  Under 
this  clause  Thomas  Rice  Henn,  Esq.,  Q.C.,  Recorder  of 
Galway,  granted  a stay  of  the  execution  of  the  decrees  in 
cases  of  all  the  tenants  who  would  have  filed  claims  for 
compensation  on  or  before  the  9th  of  February  last.  Thirty- 
eight  claims,  the  first  to  be  tried  under  the  clause,  were 
filed,  and  it  is  to  enable  the  poor  people  to  successfully 
maintain  these  claims  I make  this  appeal  to  the  public. 
Every  claim  must  be  tried  on  its  individual  merits.  It  is 
estimated  that  the  purely  legal  expenses,  not  to  speak  of 
many  incidental  expenses,  will  amount  to  at  least  ^50,  to- 
wards which  the  people  themselves  are  not  able  to  subscribe 
even  a single  penny.  Forty-one  of  them  are  on  the  relief 
list,  and  every  single  tenant  on  the  estate,  except  four,  would 
require  relief  if  we  had  it  to  give.  There  are  three  families, 
with  eight  or  nine  members  in  each,  who  have  nothing  to 
subsist  on  from  one  Tuesday  to  another  except  the  small 
pittance  of  Indian  meal  doled  out  to  them  by  the  committee. 

“ I,  therefore,  am  reluctantly  obliged  to  entreat  the  public 
to  come  to  the  assistance  of  these  poor  people.  They  are 
abjectly  poor ; no  words  could  convey  any  idea  of  their 
poverty.  Their  cases  will  be  tried  on  the  19th  of  April,  just 
a month  from  the  present  time.  On  the  issue  of  these  cases 
their  very  existence  depends.  If  they  are  beaten,  nothing 
remains  for  them  but  the  workhouse.  They  will  not  be 


Irish  Priests  and  the  Land  Agitation.  249 


able  to  emigrate,  and  beaten  they  must  be  without  the  ne- 
cessary funds.  The  importance  to  the  tenants  of  Ireland 
generally  of  the  principle  involved  cannot  be  exaggerated. 
To  contribute  something  is  a great  work  of  charity — the 
smallest  contribution  will  be  gratefully  and  thankfully  re- 
ceived, and  as  the  time  is  so  short  it  is  particularly  true  that 
he  who  gives  quickly  gives  twice.  My  apology  for  this 
appeal  is,  that  owing  to  the  prevailing  distress  an  appeal  to 
the  people  of  the  parish  only  would  be  a cruel  mockery. 
All  contributions  will  be  received  and  thankfully  acknow- 
ledged by,  yours  very  sincerely, 

“Patrick  Levingstone,  C.C.” 

The  following  letter  from  the  Right  Rev.  Dr. 
Power,  Bishop  of  Waterford,  was  read  at  the 
Clonmel  meeting,  when  Count  Moore,  M.P., 
presided  : — 

“Waterford,  22 nd  October , 1880. 

“Dear  Sir, — In  reply  to  your  letter  of  the  18th  instant, 
requesting,  on  behalf  of  the  Committee  of  Management, 
that  I would  express  approval  of  the  objects  for  the  attain- 
ment of  which  a land  meeting  is  to  be  held  in  Clonmel  on 
the  24th  instant,  I beg  to  assure  you  and  the  committee 
that  every  constitutional  effort  having  for  its  aim  the  satis- 
factory settlement  of  the  land  question  shall  command  my 
warmest  sympathies  and  earnest  co-operation.  Every  true 
Irishman  must  deplore  the  sad  and  sickening  sight  of 
witnessing  the  bone  and  sinew  of  our  population  forced  to 
fly  from  our  shores  in  hundreds  of  thousands  as  houseless 
outcasts,  the  victims  of  inhuman  land  laws.  Scenes  such  as 
these  can  be  arrested  only  by  the  enactment  of  such  wise 


250  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 

and  stern  laws  as  will  wrest  from  the  landlords  the  despotic 
power  given  them  by  anti-Irish  Governments  in  order  to  up- 
hold them,  as  an  alien  garrison,  to  assist  in  crushing  the 
legitimate  aspirations  of  a down-trodden  nation.  An 
earnest  and  vigorously  sustained  agitation  such  as  that  now 
extending  throughout  the  land,  kept  strictly  within  constitu- 
tional bounds  and  excluding  all  secret  and  illegal  organisa- 
tions, must  command  the  attention  of  statesmen,  and  sound 
the  death-knell  of  landlord  injustice  and  tyranny.  Hence 
the  usual  faction  cry  for  coercion,  when  the  people  demand 
the  redress  of  their  grievances,  has  been  raised,  and  a friendly 
Administration  is  daily  goaded  by  its  astute  and  designing 
opponents  to  suppress  a constitutional,  though  widespread 
agitation  by  suspending  the  safeguards  of  free  and  open  dis- 
cussion. But  I trust  that  the  enlightened  statesmen  who 
rule  the  destinies  of  the  empire  may  not  be  so  pliant  as  to 
play  into  the  hands  of  their  unmasked  enemies,  and  forfeit 
the  confidence  of  the  Irish  people.  In  order  to  remove  all 
pretence  for  the  enactment  of  coercive  measures,  and  to 
sustain  the  government  in  resisting  the  frantic  demands  for 
the  suspension  of  the  guarantees  of  free  discussion,  it 
behoves  the  leaders  of  the  existing  agitation  to  be  moderate 
and  guarded  in  language,  and  above  all,  should  any  cry 
savouring  of  bloodthirsty  retaliation  or  injury  of  property 
be  raised  by  mischievous  individuals  skulking  in  the  crowd, 
the  rule  of  action  carried  out  by  the  immortal  Liberator  in 
similar  circumstances  should  be  adopted  by  calling  on  the 
well-disposed  to  hand  them  over  to  the  police.  Hoping 
that  all  such  precautions  shall  be  taken,  and  wishing  a 
favourable  issue  to  your  proceedings,  I am,  dear  sir,  yours 
faithfully, 

John  Power.” 

I may  add  here  a condensed  report  of  some 


Irish  Priests  aud  the  Land  Agitation.  251 

remarks  made  at  Naas  in  October  (1880)  by 
the  Right  Rev.  Dr.  Lynch,  as  they  bear  strongly 
on  the  question  of  emigration — the  great  land- 
lord panacea  for  the  distress  they  have  too  often 
caused  themselves — 

“ Dr.  Lynch  said  he  would  rather  see  his  people  suffer  a 
little  want  here  upon  earth  for  a short  time,  and  then  enjoy 
the  happiness  of  heaven  for  all  eternity,  than  have  a little 
more  enjoyment  and  then  suffer  eternal  misery.  He  knew 
well,  he  went  on  to  say,  the  dreadful  dangers  that  beset  the 
paths  of  the  Irish  once  they  left  their  own  shores,  and  he 
was  convinced  that  there  was  no  place  on  this  earth  where 
man  or  woman  could  so  safely  and  surely  save  their  souls  as  in 
Ireland.  He  also  said  he  had  it  on  the  authority  of  a priest 
who  had  spent  years  on  the  American  mission  that  nearly 
seven  out  of  ten  who  emigrated  to  America  neglected  their 
religious  duties.  It  is  not  surprising  after  all  this  that  the 
bishop  strongly  advised  his  people  to  stay  at  home  as  long 
as  they  could.” 1 

At  a meeting,  the  date  of  which  I have  mis- 
laid, Canon  O’Keefe  moved  the  following  reso- 
lution : — 

“ ‘ That  we  regard  the  present  land  system  of  this  country 
as  the  most  odious,  degrading,  and  disastrous  result  of  the 
foreign  government  of  Ireland,  and  that  we  shall  never  cease 
to  contend,  by  every  means  in  our  power,  until  the  tenant 
farmers  of  Ireland  shall  be  made  the  owners  of  the  soil  they 


t Reported  in  zYation  of  ?ame  date. 


The  Case  of  Ireland  staled. 


252 


cultivate.’  They  were  taking  the  proper  means  of  redress- 
ing their  grievances  by  that  constitutional  agitation,  which 
was  spread  like  a wave  over  the  surface  of  the  land.  They 
had  against  them  the  landlords  of  Ireland  and  all  their 
minions  and  slaves.  There  was  the  Bar  of  Ireland,  which 
if  not  against  them  would  do  nothing  for  them.  At  one 
time  it  was  adorned  by  such  men  as  Grattan  and  Flood,  but 
to-day  every  spark  of  patriotism  was  extinguished  from  the 
profession.  Another  element  against  them  was  the  vene- 
mous  feeling  of  the  late  Administration.  But  they  would 
carry  this  great  question.  He  relied  on  the  Irish  party  and 
the  chief  who  ruled  it  (cheers  for  Mr.  Parnell).  Their 
enemies  might  ask  what  they  wanted.  His  reply  was  that 
they  wanted  the  land  of  Ireland  for  the  people  of  Ireland. 
But  did  they  want  to  rob  the  landlords  ? His  principle  was 
— and  it  was  the  principle  of  the  eternal  law — that  no  man 
should  take  the  property  of  another  to  the  amount  of  a 
penny,  unless  he  paid  for  it  (cheers).  If  then  the  land  were 
taken  from  the  owner  let  him  be  paid  the  full  value  of  it.” 

At  a meeting  near  Ballinasloe  [Oct.  1880] 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Flanagan,  speaking  for  the  Bishop, 
said  : — 

“ A crisis  had  now  come  which  made  it  imperative  on  the 
Legislature  to  maturely  consider  the  demands  of  the  tenant- 
farmers  of  Ireland,  and  rendered  a settlement  of  the  land 
question  inevitable.  Of  course,  it  should  be  admitted  that 
in  the  settlement  of  this  all  important  question  grave  diffi- 
culties would  arise,  and  various  opinions  as  to  the  best  mode 
to  be  adopted  would  be  formed,  but  he  hoped  that  the 
bringing  of  tranquillity,  peace,  and~prosperity  to  this  country 
would  be  the  outcome  of  the  solution  of  the  land  problem. 


Irish  Priests  a?id  the  Land  Agitation . 253 

In  the  agitation  for  land  reform  he  would  also  observe  that 
the  priests,  as  they  always  were,  would  be  with  the  people 
so  long  as  they  acted  peaceably,  orderly,  and  constitutionally* 
Heretofore  the  people  followed  the  priests  in  all  the  great 
movements  for  the  advancement  of  true  nationality,  and 
now  in  the  present  movement  to  show  their  great  love  for 
their  flocks  the  priests  were  ready  to  follow  the  people  to 
the  contemplated  land  meeting  at  Kilreecle.  His  lordship 
accorded  his  warm  approval,  and  expressed  his  most  earnest 
wishes  for  its  success  (applause).” 

Now,  in  the  face  of  all  the  reiterated  declara- 
tions of  Irish  bishops  and  priests,  it  is  not  the 
way  to  promote  peace  to  charge  them  with  en- 
couraging lawlessness,  and  accuse  them  of  en- 
couraging crime.  I must  admit,  indeed,  that 
violent  accusations  of  this  kind  have  not  been 
confined  to  the  Orange  faction  in  the  North  of 
Ireland ; in  a marked  and  scarcely  less  expres- 
sive form  they  have  been  reiterated  by  English 
Catholic  papers.  One  gentleman,  writing  to  the 
Tablet , gives  the  fact  of  his  “ having  been  pre- 
viously a beneficed  clergyman  of  the  Church  of 
England  and  ex-editor  of  a High  Church  perio- 
dical,” as  a reason  why  he  is  “ constrained  ” to 
denounce  Irish  priests  for  joining  with  their 
people  in  asking  justice  from  England.  Some 
people  might  think  it  a reason  why  he  should 
have  abstained  from,,  such  criticism. 

The  following  letter  has  been  addressed  by 


254 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


the  Archbishop  of  Cashel  to  the  editor  of  the 
Free7na7is  yournal: — 

u Rome,  November  1 7 th. 

“ My  dear  Sir, — Under  the  heading  ‘Rome  and  Ireland,* 
Saturday’s  Freeman  contains  the  following  paragraph,  said 
to  have  been  conveyed  to  you  from  Rome  by  ‘ Reuter’s  and 
Ordinary  Telegraph’ : — 

It  is  well-known  in  diplomatic  circles  accredited  to  the  Holy  See  that 
the  Pope  is  much  embarrassed  to  know  how  to  deal  with  the  Irish  diffi- 
culty. He  fully  understands  that  it  is  not  a question  between  Protes- 
tants and  Catholics,  but  between  the  friends  of  order  and  anarchists. 
He  openly  disapproves  the  agrarian  movement,  and  entertains  a sincere 
desire  to  assist  the  English  Government,  were  it  possible.  The  great 
difficulty  is,  that,  were  he  to  speak,  it  might  be  looked  on  as  an  improper 
interference.  Moreover,  he  is  well  aware  that  he  is  hearing  only  one 
side  of  the  case.  What  are  the  merits  of  the  other,  or  the  exact  facts, 
he  has  no  means  of  learning,  and  he  feels  that,  were  he  to  break  the 
silence,  he  might,  in  seeking  to  do  good,  produce,  through  imperfect 
knowledge,  a contrary  result.  The  Irish  bishops  have,  in  social  conver- 
sation in  Rome,  not  been  reticent  in  describing  Mr.  Parnell  as  a great 
benefactor  to  Ireland. 

“ Your  readers  will,  I am  sure,  be  pleased  to  learn,  on  my 
authority,  that,  with  the  exception  of  what  is  set  forth  in  the 
last  sentence,  each  and  every  statement  in  the  above  para- 
graph is  utterly,  absolutely,  and  notoriously  untrue.  Another 
portion  of  the  telegram  ascribes  words  to  me,  when  replying 
to  the  Holy  Father,  which  those  who  know  me  will  hardly 
believe  that  I used. 

“ I am,  my  dear  sir,  your  faithful  servant, 

“ T.  W.  Croke, 

“ Archbishop  of  Cashel.” 


CHAPTER  XV. 


THE  PRESENT  REPEATS  THE  PAST A TITHE 

AGITATION  IN  KERRY. 

“ The  people  are  made  slaves  of,  and  then  they  are  called  slaves.” — 
A.  Barrett. 

I STORY,  as  we  are  told  by  philosophers, 
repeats  itself.  Unhappily  in  Ireland 
the  repetition  is  somewhat  monotonous. 
The  Conservative  party  in  England,  and  nearly 
all  the  landlords  in  Ireland  (there  are  honour- 
able exceptions),  are  calling  out  for  “ coercion  ” 
— they  speak,  they  write,  as  if  it  was  an  hitherto 
unused  and  undiscovered  panacea  for  all  the 
ills  of  Ireland — and  they  taunt  the  leaders  of  the 
Liberal  party  with  not  administering  their  sul- 
phuric nostrum. 

They  suggest  the  suspension  of  the  Habeas 
Corpus  and  a little  gunpowder,  and  all  would 
be  well.  But  I have  forgotten.  I am  told 
that  a London  society  paper,  which  patronises 
even  royalty,  has  suggested  seriously  the  depri- 
vation ot  the  franchise  for  the  whole  of  Ireland. 
And  this  is  in  an  age  when  the  liberty  of  the 


256  The  Case  of  Ireland  state!. 

subject  is  supposed  to  be  the  great  object  of 
philosophers,  statesmen,  and  the  public  gene- 
rally. 

Let  me  say  again  : Ouem  Dens  vult  perdere 
prius  dement  at.  One  is  tempted  to  think  that, 
great  as  are  the  evils  which  have  been  com- 
mitted by  Irish  landlords,  by  their  violation  of 
English  laws,  they  must  surely  have  done  even 
more  than  is  apparent  to  their  greatest  enemies, 
or  they  could  never  have  been  given  up  to  such 
hopeless  insanity. 

Why,  coercion  has  been  the  normal  rule  of 
Irish  government,  if  one  may  judge  from  its 
perpetual  re-enactment.  Certainly  it  cannot  be 
asked  for  as  a new  experiment ; we  are  long 
since  lost  to  all  sense  of  novelty  in  that  re- 
spect. But  what  a poor  and  pityful  policy  all 
this  is.  One  generation  after  another  passes 
away,  and  the  cry  of  coercion  is  handed  down 
from  father  to  son  as  the  rallying  cry  for  Irish 
government.  Might  it  not  be  well  to  try  some 
change,  even  as  an  experiment  ? 

Mr.  Froude  has  happily  lucid  moments,  and 
in  a lucid  moment  he  wrote  the  following.  It 
is  true  he  refers  to  the  past,  but  what  he  has 
said  his  children  will  apply  to  the  present  : 

“ Of  all  the  fatal  gifts,”  says  Mr.  Froude,  “ which  we  be- 
stowed on  our  unhappy  possession  was  the  English  system 


Tithe  Agitation  in  Kerry ♦ 


257 


Of  owning  land.  Land,  properly  speaking,  cannot  be  owned 
by  any  man — it  belongs  to  all  the  human  race.  Laws  have 
to  be  made  to  secure  the  profits  of  their  industry  to  those 
who  cultivate  it ; but  the  private  property  of  this  or  that 
person,  which  he  is  entitled  to  deal  with  as  he  pleases,  land 
never  ought  to  be,  and  never  strictly  is.  In  Ireland,  as  in 
all  primitive  civilizations,  the  soil  was  divided  among  the 
tribes.  Each  tribe  collectively  owned  its  own  district. 
L7nder  the  feudal  system  the  proprietor  was  the  Crown,  as 
representing  the  nation  ; while  the  subordinate  tenures  were 
held  with  duties  attached  to  them,  and  were  liable  on  non- 
fulfilment  to  forfeiture.  In  England,  the  burden  of  defence 
was  on  the  land.  Every  gentleman,  according  to  his  estate, 
was  bound  to  bring  so  many  men  into  the  field,  properly 
armed  and  accoutred.  When  a standing  army  was  substi- 
tuted for  the  old  levies,  the  country  squires  served  as  unpaid 
magistrates  on  the  commission  of  the  peace.  The  country 
squire  system  was,  in  fact,  a development  of  the  feudal 
system,  and,  as  we  gave  the  feudal  system  to  Ireland,  so  we 
tried  long  and  earnestly  to  give  them  our  landowners.  The 
intention,  doubtless,  was  as  good  as  possible  in  both  cases, 
but  we  had  taken  no  trouble  to  understand  Ireland,  and  we 
failed  as  completely  as  before.  The  duties  attached  to 
landed  property  died  away,  or  were  forgotten — the  owner- 
ship only  remained.  The  people,  retaining  their  tribal 
traditions,  believed  that  they  had  rights  upon  the  land  on 
which  they  lived.  The  owner  believed  that  there  were  no 
rights  but  his  own.  In  England,  the  rights  of  landlords 
have  similarly  survived  their  duties,  but  they  have  been 
modified  by  custom  or  public  opinion.  In  Ireland,  the 
proprietor  was  an  alien,  with  the  fortunes  of  the  residents 
upon  his  estate  in  his  hands,  and  at  his  mercy.  He  was 
divided  from  them  in  creed  and  language ; he  despised 
them,  as  of  an  inferior  race,  and  he  acknowledged  no  in- 

R 


258  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

terest  m common  with  them.  Had  he  been  allowed  to 
trample  on  them  and  make  them  his  slaves,  he  would  have 
cared  for  them,  perhaps,  as  he  cared  for  his  horses.  But 
their  persons  were  free,  while  their  farms  and  houses  were 
his ; and  thus  his  only  object  was  to  wring  out  of  them  the 
last  penny  which  they  could  pay,  leaving  them  and  their 
children  to  a life  scarcely  raised  above  the  level  of  their 
own  pigs.” 1 

Here  is  what  an  Irish  priest  has  to  say  of  the 
present  state  of  Ireland,  and  let  it  be  noted 
clearly  he  speaks  of  facts  : — 

“The  Rev.  D.  Ryan,  D.D.,  president  of  the  Cashel  branch, 
came  forward.  He  said  that  the  eloquent  address  of  their 
patriotic  representative  saved  him  the  trouble  of  speaking 
to  them  on  the  very  important  topic  of  organisation.  He 
would  not,  however,  allow  the  opportunity  to  pass  without 
offering  a few  remarks  on  the  Irish  land  system  and  its 
results.  The  system  was  iniquitous  and  unjust,  and  was 
opposed  to  the  laws  of  God  and  nature.  There  was  no  law 
more  solemnly  enjoined  by  the  Almighty  than  that  which 
defines  the  duty  of  the  parent.  Well,  that  man  was  false  to 
that  law  who,  through  paying  an  unjust  rent,  allowed  his 
children  to  starve  before  his  eyes,  and  permitted  them  to 
grow  up  in  rags  and  without  education.  He  was  aware 
that  there  were  more  inmates  in  the  Cashel  workhouse  than 
there  were  people  attending  the  parish  Mass  of  Roesgreen 
on  a Sunday  or  holiday  (cries  of  4 Shame’),  and  he  stated  on 
his  experience  as  a priest  that  the  average  peasant  and  the 


1 “ Romanism  and  the  Irish  Race,”  p.  36. 


Tithe  Agitation  in  Kerry . 259 

average  peasant’s  children  were  worse  housed,  worse  clothed, 
and  worse  fed  than  the  pauper  inmates  of  the  workhouse 
(cheers).  This  disgraceful  state  of  things  could  last  no 
longer  in  a civilised  country.  For  the  past  generation,  since 
the  years  of  the  memorable  famine,  we  had  lost  three  mil- 
lions of  our  people ; and  our  population  was  daily  dwindling, 
verifying  the  words  of  the  great  O’Connell  that  Ireland  was 
a country  blessed  by  God  but  cursed  by  man  (cheers). 
There  was  no  evil  without  a remedy,  and  a means  was  at 
length  discovered  to  rid  Ireland  of  the  accursed  system  of 
landlordism.  He  advised  the  people  to  be  constitutional, 
but  to  be  determined  at  the  same  time ; and  told  them  that 
from  this  agitation  they  would  get  prosperity,  and  with 
prosperity  would  come  in  the  immediate  future  that  happy 
time  when  the  green  flag  would  float  proudly  over  a free 
people,  and  a native  Parliament  would  make  its  own  laws  in 
old  College-green  (great  cheering).” 

Such  is  the  present  state  of  things  in  Ireland  ; 
and  let  it  be  noted  this  is  said  of  Tipperary, 
one  of  the  (supposed)  most  fertile  parts  of 
Ireland.  Yet  we  see  that  coercion  is  the  only 
remedy  for  all  this.  Yes  ; coercion  is  needed, 
but  it  should  be  applied  to  those  whose  greed 
and  selfishness  have  caused  so  much  of  this 
misery  to  their  serfs.  Coercion  has  been  tried 
ever  since  the  Union  on  the  Irish  tenant, 
it  is  only  fair  that  the  Irish  landlord  should 
have  his  turn.  Good  landlords  will  not  object 
to  legal  restraint.  The  sooner  the  usurious  and 
absentee  landlord  is  made  to  feel  its  wholesome 


26o 


The  Case  oj'  Ireland  stated. 

fetters  the  better.  Coercion  Acts  have  been 
passed  again  and  again  through  Parliament 
with  unusual  rapidity  and  unanimity.  Mr. 
O’Brien  says  : — 

“On  the  9th  of  July,  an  Arms  Bill,  which  the  Earl  of 
Radnor  denounced  as  ‘ vexatious  and  oppressive,’  was,  on 
the  motion  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  read  a second  time 
in  the  Lords.  It  had  a more  fortunate  fate  than  the  Waste 
Lands  Bill.  Nothing  is  more  melancholy  in  the  history  of 
English  legislation  for  Ireland  than  the  rapidity  with  which 
Coercion  Acts  have  been  passed,  as  compared  with  the 
apathy  and  neglect  of  Parliament  in  dealing  with  remedial 
measures.  I once  heard  Sir  Wilfred  Lawson  say,  d propos  of 
the  late  Zulu  war,  ‘ that  the  Zulus  were  a very  fine  people,  and 
capable  of  being  greatly  improved  and  civilised but,  he 
added,  ‘ it  seems  to  me  that  the  only  efforts  which  we  have 
taken  up  to  the  present  to  civilise  and  improve  them  have 
been  to  shoot  them.’  England  has  left  herself  open  to  the 
charge  that,  for  many  years,  her  chief  efforts  to  improve  the 
Irish  people  were  to  imprison  or  to  hang  them.  ‘The  gal- 
lows,’ says  Mr.  Bright,  ‘has  been  the  great  preserver  in 
Ireland.’  ”1 

In  Mr.  O’Brien’s  admirable  work  he  shows 
that  Ireland,  since  the  Union,  has  scarcely  been 
left  for  even  a year  or  two  without  some  Coer- 
cion Act. 


1 “ O’Brien’s  Land  Question , p.  39.  I earnestly  recommend  this  work 
to  the  reader.  It  is  not  expensive.  The  publishers  are  Sampson, 
Low  and  Co.,  188  Fleet  Street,  London. 


Tithe  Agitation  in  Kerry.  261 

But,  we  are  told  now,  even  by  those  who  are 
anxious  to  do  some  little  act  of  justice  to  Ire- 
land, that  we  must  have  coercion  first,  and 
justice  after.  Was  there  ever  such  infatuation? 
Because  an  admitted  wrong  has  been  done  to  a 
whole  nation,  they  must  be  first  punished  for 
saying  so  before  the  wrong  is  redressed. 
Is  this  English  honour,  of  which  we  hear  so 
much  ? 

But  it  is  said  that  Ireland  has  done  illegal 
acts  which  must  be  punished.  And  have  the 
English  people  no  patience  ? Have  they  no 
high  sense  of  justice  ? Have  they  no  self- 
respect  ? They  have  done  Ireland  grievous 
wrong;  and  if  Ireland,  in  complaining  of  the 
wrong,  does  not  act  quite  wisely,  is  it  the  part 
of  him  who  has  inflicted  the  wrong  to  inflict 
punishment  before  he  redresses  it  ? 

Is  this  how  England  has  been  governed? 
Are  we  still  and  ever  to  have  one  law  for  Eng- 
land and  another  for  Ireland  ? Is  England  to 
govern  Ireland,  or  is  it  to  be  governed  by  Irish 
landlords  ? If  England  cannot  make  Irish  land- 
lords amenable  to  English  law ; if  they  will  not 
allow  the  same  laws  to  be  enacted  for  their 
dealings  with  their  Irish  tenants  as  those  to 
which  they  are  obliged  to  submit  in  their  deal- 


262  The  Case  of  Ireland  staled, 

ings  with  their  English  tenants,  then  let  us 
have  Repeal  of  the  Union. 1 

I am  convinced,  indeed  I need  not  express  it 
as  an  opinion,  it  is  a matter  of  fact,  that  English 
noblemen  and  gentlemen  are  by  no  means  so 
unwilling  to  do  justice  to  Ireland.  A few  Con- 
servatives who  oppose  it  on  political,  shall  I say 
principle  or  principles,  are  the  great  exception. 

When  Lord  Stanley,  in  June,  1845,  intro- 


1 “ It  is  well  known  that  in  England  and  in  Scotland,  before  a land- 
lord offers  a farm  for  letting,  he  finds  it  necessary  to  provide  a suitable 
farm-house,  with  necessary  farm-buildings,  for  the  proper  management 
of  the  farm.  He  puts  the  gates  and  fences  into  good  order,  and  he  takes 
upon  himself  a great  part  of  the  burden  of  keeping  the  buildings  in 
repair  during  the  term ; and  the  rent  is  fixed  with  reference  to  this  state 
of  things.  Such,  at  least,  is  generally  the  case,  although  special  con- 
tracts may  occasionally  be  made,  varying  the  arrangement  between  land- 
lord and  tenant.  In  Ireland  the  case  is  wholly  different.  ...  In  most 
cases  [there]  whatever  is  done  in  the  way  of  building  or  fencing  is  done 
by  the  tenant  ; and,  in  the  ordinary  language  of  the  country,  dwelling- 
houses,  farm-buildings,  and  even  the  making  of  fences,  are  described 
by  the  general  word  ‘ improvements,’  which  is  thus  employed  to  denote 
the  necessary  adjuncts,  without  which,  in  England  or  in  Scotland,  no 
tenant  would  be  found  to  rent  it.” — “ Report  of  the  Devon  Commission 
Digest,”  vol.  ii.,  pp.  1 122-1 123. 

Mr.  O’Connor  Morris  (the  Times'  Special  Commissioner),  writing  in 
1868-9,  observes  upon  the  law  as  to  improvement : — “ In  Ireland,  where 
in  most  cases  what  is  done  in  the  way  of  improving  the  soil  is  done  by 
the  tenant,  not  by  the  landlord,  and  where  the  tenant  in  the  majority  of 
instances  has  not  risen  to  the  status  of  a free  contractor,  the  law  is  in 
the  highest  degree  unfair ; it  refuses  to  protect  what  really  is  the  pro- 
perty of  a tenant,  added  to  the  holding,  and  exposes  it  to  unredressed 
confiscation.” — ‘’Letters  to  the  Times"  p.  148. 


Tithe  Agitation  in  Kerry . 


2 63 

duced  a Bill  for  “the  purpose  of  providing  com- 
pensation to  tenants  in  Ireland,  in  certain  cases, 
on  being  dispossessed  of  their  holdings,  for  such 
improvements  as  they  may  have  made  during 
their  tenancy/’  it  was  opposed  by  Irish  land- 
lords, and  a solemn  protest  against  it  was  signed 
by  Lords  Monteagle  and  Brandon,  Gosford, 
Campbell,  Chaworth  (Meath),  Crofton,  Charle- 
mount,  Lismore,  Somerhill(Clanricarde),  Kinard 
and  Rosse,  Carew,  Clanbrassil  (Roden),  Lucan, 
Charleville,  Stradbroke,  Massarene,  Sandwich, 
Rosse,  Lorton,  Egmont,  Kingston,  London- 
derry. 

On  the  23rd  July,  1849,  Mr.  Horsman  moved: 

“That  an  humble  address  be  presented  to  her  Majesty, 
praying  her  to  take  into  her  consideration  the  condition  of 
Ireland.” 

“ What  have  we  done  for  Ireland  ?”  said  Mr.  Horsman. 
“Ireland  has  been  truly  described  as  one  adjourned  debate. 
We  found  her  prostrate  in  February  ; have  we  raised  her  in 
July  ? Ireland  is  now  entering  on  the  fourth  year  of  famine; 
sixty  per  cent,  of  her  population  are  receiving  relief.  What 
are  the  causes  which  have  produced  such  results  ? Bad 
legislation,  careless  legislation,  criminal  legislation,  has  been 
the  cause  of  all  the  disasters  we  are  now  deploring.” 

Mr.  Horsman’s  resolution  led  to  an  animated 
debate — but  to  nothing  else. 

Mr.  O’Brien  says: — 

“Seven  years  had  now  elapsed  since  the  report  of  the 


264 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 


Devon  Commission  was  placed  before  Parliament.  That 
report  had  recommended  the  enactment  of  legislative 
measures  to  protect  the  fruits  of  the  tenants’  industry  in 
Ireland.  The  recommendation  was  not  carried  out.  No 
Bill  was  passed  by  the  Imperial  Parliament  in  the  interests 
of  the  tenants.  But  to  use  the  words  of  Mr.  Finlayson,  the 
able  editor  of  Reeve’s  ‘ History  of  English  Law,’  4 An  Act 
was  passed  for  the  relief  of  the  Iwidlords.  This  was  the 
Incumbered  Estates  Act. 1 


This  Act  was  well  intended  by  England,  but 
it  has  caused  not  a little  of  the  present  distress. 
Lord  John  Russell  spoke  thus,  at  the  Devon 
Commission  : — 

44  However  ignorant  many  of  us  may  be  of  the  state  of 
Ireland,  we  have  here  (in  the  Devon  Commission)  the  best 
evidence  that  can  be  procured  —the  evidence  of  persons 
best  acquainted  with  that  country,  of  magistrates  of  many 
years’  standing,  of  farmers,  of  those  who  have  been  employed 
by  the  Crown  ; and  all  tell  you  that  the  possession  of  land 
is  that  which  makes  the  difference  between  existing  and 
starving  amongst  the  peasantry,  and  that,  therefore,  ejections 
out  of  their  holdings  are  the  cause  of  violence  and  crime  in 
Ireland.  In  fact,  it  is  no  other  than  the  cause  which  the 
great  master  of  human  nature  describes,  when  he  makes  a 
tempter  suggest  it  as  a reason  to  violate  the  law  : 4 Famine 
is  in  thy  cheeks,  need  and  oppression  starveth  in  thine  eyes, 
upon  thy  back  hangs  ragged  misery.  The  world  is  not  thy 


**  Irish  Land  Question,”  p.  109, 


Tithe  Agitation  in  Kerry . 265 

friend,  nor  the  world’s  law ; the  world  affords  no  law  to 
make  thee  rich.  Then  be  not  poor,  but  break  it.’  ” 1 

No  wonder  that  the  present  Land  Commis 
sion  has  been  viewed  with  indifference  or  con 
tempt.  We  have  had  a great  many  Land  Com- 
missions, and  a great  many  Coercion  Acts,  to 
keep  us  quiet,  until  the  English  Government 
had  time  to  do  us  justice ; but  we  are  still  wait- 
ing for  the  justice. 

In  1844,  Lord  Normanby  said  in  the  House 
of  Lords  : — 

“ In  Ireland  the  landlord  has  a monopoly  of  the  means  of 
existence,  and  has  a power  for  enforcing  his  bargains,  which 
does  not  exist  elsewhere — the  power  of  starvation.” 

Land  Commissions  and  Coercion  Acts  not- 
withstanding— this  is  as  true  in  18S0  as  in 
1844. 

We  hear  a great  deal  about  the  sacred  rights 
of  property ; but  what  of  the  sacred  right  to 
live  ? Did  England  meet  the  riotous  demands 

o 

of  the  English  populace  with  Coercion  Acts, 
when,  from  time  to  time,  they  have  rebelled 
against  injustice.  No.  A man  who  rages  in 
fever  does  not  cut  off  his  hand  while  he  is  wait- 


1 Lord  John  Russell,  “ Hansard,”  3rd  series,  vol.  xcvii.  p.  507. 


266 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


in  gr  for  his  disease  to  be  cured.  England  will 
not  give  a stone  to  her  people  when  they  ask  for 
bread.  Can  she  blame  Ireland,  if  Ireland 
objects  to  be  treated  as  a slave  colony. 

I quote  below  from  a recent  article  in  the 
Freemans  Joitrnal  on  this  subject : — 

“ Lord  Sidmouth  passed  his  infamous  “Six  Acts”  in  1819. 
These  Acts  forbade  the  people  to  be  armed  and  drilled,  for- 
bade public  assemblies,  gave  constables  the  right  of  searching 
for  arms,  and  muzzled  the  Press.  It  was  then,  after  this 
repressive  legislation,  that  the  real  English  monster  meeting 
and  rioting  set  in.  Then  came  the  Cato  Street  conspiracy 
for  the  murder  of  the  whole  Cabinet,  and  in  every  one  of  the 
great  towns  of  England,  Scotland,  and  Wales,  there  were 
enormous  mass  meetings  of  people.  The  people  marched 
in  drill  bands,  under  flags  bearing  for  inscriptions,  ‘No 
Com  Laws,’  ‘Annual  Parliaments,’  ‘Universal  Suffrage,’ 
‘ Equal  Representation  or  Death,’  ‘ God  Armeth  the 
Patriot,’  &c.,  &c.  One  flag,  which  we  believe  floated  at  Mr. 
Gladstone’s  town,  Leeds,  bore  the  picture  of  a yeoman 
cutting  down  a woman,  with  the  motto,  ‘ Vengeance.’  The 
meetings  everywhere  denounced  the  Government  measures, 
and  the  riotings  and  burnings  were  terrible.  Nottingham 
was  reduced  to  ashes,  a good  part  of  Bristol  was  in  flames, 
and  the  Duke  of  Wellington  declared  that  Birmingham  in 
1839  was  in  a worse  plight  than  any  city  he  had  ever  sacked. 
In  1843  the  riots  broke  out  again  in  various  parts  of  Eng- 
land and  Scotland,  and  were  followed  by  the  Rebecca  Riots 
in  South  Wales,  which  were  as  furious  as  the  previous  Lud- 
dite Riots  in  the  same  place.  There  were  also  the  alarming 
* Radical’  Riots  in  London,  and  later  there  came  the  Chartist 
and  anti-Corn  Law  monster  masses,  which  counted  their 


, Land  Agitation  in  Kerry. 


267 


numbers  by  millions.  It  was  during  the  last  named  excite- 
ment that  the  late  Sir  R.  Peel’s  private  secretary,  Mr.  Drum 
rnond,  was  assassinated  in  London  by  mistake  for  Peel  him 
self.  The  Reform  mass  assemblages  all  through  England  in 
1866  and  the  Hyde  Park  Riot  we  all  remember,  and  we  re- 
member, too,  that  it  was  these  masses  and  riots  that  coerced 
or  enabled  Mr.  Disraeli  to  take  his  1 leap  in  the  dark.’ 
This  is  a sketch  of  popular  agitation  in  England,  and  we 
shall  be  glad  if  Mr.  H.  Gladstone  will  inform  us  what  extra- 
coercive  measure,  and  what  suspension  of  the  Constitution, 
was  adopted  by  the  Crown  against  all  these  demonstrations 
in  England,  since  the  time  of  Lord  Sidmouth’s  tyrannical 
and  abortive  Acts  ? 


And  here  let  us  call  special  attention  to  our 
subject ; for  it  is  of  great  importance.  The 
poorest  men  and  women  in  Ireland  take  an 
active  interest  in  politics,  which  can  scarcely  be 
understood  in  England.  To  bribe  a whole 
county  of  voters,  as  has  been  done  lately  in 
England,  would  be  impossible  in  Ireland.  I 
put  aside  the  question  of  conscience.  Every 
moment  of  the  life  of  an  Irish  peasant  brings 
him  face  to  face  with  circumstances  which  affect 
his  right  to  live.  He  has  the  keen  sense,  at 
least,  of  personal  interest  in  every  political  vote 
and  in  every  political  question.  Hence  it  is 
that  politics  are  of  such  interest  to  him  ; hence 
it  is  that  he  takes  such  an  interest  in  every 
public  affair. 


268  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

Is  it  not  a question  of  the  highest  moment  to 
any  man  how  he  is  to  feed,  and  clothe,  and 
educate  his  young  family  ? Is  it  not  a question 
of  the  highest  moment  to  him,  whether  he  is  to 
spend  his  life  in  exile  from  a country  to  which 
he  is  passionately  attached,  or  whether  he  is  to 
remain  in  that  humble  home  which,  though  it 
has  few  charms  for  others,  has  every  charm  for 
him  ? 

It  is  not  long  since  I saw  a pathetic  appeal 
in  some  paper  from  Irish  landlords,  who  pictured 
in  graphic  and  glowing  words  their  love  for 
their  “homes,”  and  their  fear  that  they  should 
be  obliged  to  leave  them  if  the  land  agitation 
continued.  Their  homes ! The  place  where 
so  many  of  them  only  come  for  a few  weeks,  at 
most,  every  year,  or  once  in  two  or  three  years, 
to  see  that  their  rents  are  duly  paid  and  duly 
received.  It  would  be  fitter  to  call  these  places 
their  lodgings.  Their  children  are  not  born  in 
them ; they  are  not  reared  in  them ; certainly 
they  are  not  taught  to  love  them.  These  nobles 
and  gentlemen,  who  talk  thus  pathetically  of 
their  possible  well-paid  dismissal  from  the  offices 
of  rent-receivers  in  Ireland,  find  it  their  plea- 
sure to  reside  for  half  the  year  in  France,  or 
Germany,  or  England — perhaps  much  further. 

But  the  Irish  exile  utters  his  lament  if  he 


Tithe  Agitation  in  Kerry.  269 

must  leave  his  humble  cot.  To  the  last  hour  of 
his  life,  however  prosperous  he  may  be  in  foreign 
lands,  he  pines  for  home,  and  he  cannot  forget 
the  cause  of  his  compulsory  and  terrible  exile  ; 
nor  does  he  forget  his  home,  as  his  abundant 
help  “to  pay  the  rint  ” and  to  get  some  trifling 
necessary  for  the  old  father  or  mother  amply 
prove. 

It  is  one  of  the  most  anomalous  and  disgrace- 
ful  facts  in  all  the  world  that  Irish  landlords 
should  be  supported,  not  merely  by  the  labour 
and  toil  of  their  hard-working  tenants,  but  by 
the  labour  and  capital  of  the  sons  and  daughters 
of  their  tenants  in  a foreign  land.  This  is  no 
matter  of  fiction,  or  sentiment,  or  romance. 
There  are  items — official  facts  and  figures — to 
prove  it.1 

And  yet  we  are  told  that  the  Irish  are  lazy. 
Lazy!  Why,  if  the  Irish  were  not  the  most 
industrious  people  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  they 
would  long  since  have  been  swept  off  it ; and 
those  who  now  reap  the  fruit  of  their  labour 
would  have  wept  tears  of  self-interested  sorrow 
for  their  loss. 


1 Between  1848  and  1864  the  Irish  emigrants  had  sent  back  to  Ire- 
land upwards  of  £1 3,000,000.  Lord  Dufferin  s “ Irish  Emigration  and 
Tenure  of  Land  in  Ireland p.  V 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


270 

Every  public  subject  in  Ireland  is  then  a 
political  subject,  because  every  such  subject 
touches  in  some  way  on  that  one  great  right — 
the  riMit  to  live. 

o 

I have  before  me  now  a remarkable  docu- 
ment. It  is  entitled  : — 

A FULL  REPORT 

[of  the  trials  of] 

Gerald  O’Connor,  Rev.  Andrew  O’Sullivan 
Jeremiah  O’Connor,  and  William  McCarthy, 

At  the  last  Kerry  Assizes, 

Held  at  Tralee,  on  the  18th  October, 

For  conspiring  to  resist  the  payment  of  Tithes, 
and  exciting  the  people  to  that  effect. 

Containing  the  Speech  of  Mr.  O’Connell,  in 
defence  of  the  Traversers. 

Dublin. 

1832. 

History  does,  indeed,  repeat  itself;  and  we 
have  here  in  this  tithe  trial  one  remarkably 
similar  to  the  trial  of  the  gentlemen  belonging 
to  the  Land  League  for  conspiracy  at  the 
present  day.  The  comparison  is  so  close  I 
am  publishing  the  whole  case  in  the  Ap- 
pendix to  the  present  work.  The  Counsel 


Tithe  Agitation  in  Kerry . 271 

for  the  Prosecution  spoke  as  the  Attorney- 
General  will  probably  speak  in  opening  the 
case  against  the  Land  League  traversers  : — 
“ The  people  were  misled,  the  country  was  in 
danger,  the  spirit  of  insubordination  was  abroad 
in  the  land.”  “ What ! ” he  cries,  “ are  the  laws, 
the  liberties,  and  the  lives  of  the  subjects  to  be 
held  in  subservience  to  these  lawless  agitators  ? ” 

o 

Could  more  be  said  of  the  land  agitation  to-day  ? 
Hence,  the  old  story,  always  old  and  always 
new.  Yesterday,  the  charge  was  for  “prevent- 
ing the  levying  of  tithes  ; ” to-day,  the  charge  is 
for  preventing  the  payment  of  rents  believed  to 
be  in  excess  of  the  value  of  the  land.  Always  the 
same ; a people  struggling  against  oppression 
in  the  only  way  left  to  them — by  a guerilla  war- 
fare— attracting  attention  to  their  undoubted 
wrrongs  by  actions  which,  if  they  are  in  them- 
selves reprehensible,  must  be  credited  in  some 
manner  to  those  who  inflict  the  wrong,  or  who 
refuse  to  redress  it. 

Again,  there  is  the  imputation  that  the  agita- 
tors were  not  sincere  when  they  repudiated 
violence ; and  men  were  to  be  judged,  not  by 
what  they  said,  but  by  what  their  adversaries 
chose  to  think  they  said.  If  this  was  not  a 
manufacture  of  constructive  treason,  it  was  cer- 
tainly a manufacture  of  constructive  conspiracy. 


272  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

And  by  an  infelicitous  admission,  the  prose- 
cuting counsel  declares  that  the  people  may  as 
well  complain  of  rents  as  tithes. 

The  manner  in  which  the  accused  carried  out 
their  anti-tithe  crusade  corresponds  exactly  with 
the  agitation  of  to-day.  The  grand  point  was 
to  send  any  man  to  a social  Coventry  who 
paid  tithes,  and  to  refuse  to  purchase  any 
animal  or  any  kind  of  goods  seized  for  tithes. 
There  was  the  usual  sergeant  of  police,  who 
took  notes,  and,  unhappily  for  himself,  was  re- 
legated to  the  tender  mercies  of  Mr.  O'Connell 
for  cross-examination.  Mr.  O’Connell  made 
him  remember  a great  many  things  which  he 
had  forgotten,  and  made  him  admit  several 
matters  which  were  certainly  damaging  to  the 
prosecution. 

For  example,  he  was  evidently  instructed  by 
the  magistrates,  to  tell  all  he  could  against  the 
accused,  and  to  be  silent  on  any  point  in  their 
favour.  To-day  we  have  young  girls  taken, 
contrary  to  all  legal  right,  and  detained  in 
Dublin,  in  order  that  they  may  be  ready  to 
give  such  evidence  as  it  is  supposed  will  be 
useful  to  a prosecution  which  may  yet  have  to 
be  abandoned  for  want  of  reliable  evidence. 

O’Connell’s  masterly  defence  will  be  found 
in  the  Appendix.  O’Connell’s  speeches  are  not 


Tithe  Agitation  in  Kerry . 


z / 3 


for  the  day  they  were  uttered,  they  are  for  all 
time — for  all  time  as  masterpieces  of  eloquent 
persuasive  ability ; but  let  us  hope  a time  will 
come  in  the  history  of  Ireland  when  they  will 
be  no  longer  quoted  as  appropriate  to  the 
present  moment. 

There  are  a few  lines  so  memorable  that  I 
repeat  them  here  : — 

“ The  Government  appear  to  be  under  the  influence  o! 
two  antagonistic  principles,  one  of  good,  and  the  other  of 
evil.  They  have  revived  the  system  of  the  Manicheans, 
who  worship  their  god  of  justice  and  of  injustice.” 

Alas  ! this  has  been  the  one  uniform  method 
of  governing  Ireland.  There  always  are,  let  us 
hope  there  always  will  be,  members  of  the 
English  Government  who  see  plainly  the  in- 
justice which  causes  agitation  in  Ireland;  but 
they  let — 

“ I dare  not  wait  upon  I will.” 

They  find  Ireland  is  not  a subject  of  sufficient 
interest  or  importance  to  make  a sacrifice  of 
political  power  or  friends  for  it — they  fluctuate 
between  coercion  and  justice.  They  would 
willingly  be  just  if  they  dared.  They  coerce 
because  they  must.  Coercion  may  silence  the 
cries  of  a long  suffering  people  for  the  moment  ; 
they  will  only  break  out  yet  more  cruelly  in 

s 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


274 

time.  Justice,  and  justice  alone,  will  still  their 
cries  for  ever. 

Again,  Mr.  O’Connell  brings  forward  the 
very  remarkable  and  most  significant  case  of 
the  printer  who  published  Swift’s  pamphlet,  re- 
commending the  people  of  Ireland  to  use  Irish 
manufacture  exclusively.  Those  who  taunt  the 
Irish  to-day  with  laziness,  and  indifference,  and 
want  of  business  habits  and  action,  do  not  read 
history,  or  they  are  seriously  unjust.  The 
pamphlet  was  pronounced  “ factious  and  sedi- 
tious,” and  the  printer  was  prosecuted  for  pub- 
lishing it.  Swift  says  that  great  pains  were 
taken  to  pack  the  jury,  and  that  they  were 
packed  carefully  and  well,  yet  they  acquitted  the 
printer.  But  the  judge  was  not  so  easily  bul- 
lied. He  knew  his  masters  too  well.  He  sent 
the  much-enduring  jury  back  nine  times,  and 
kept  them  in  eleven  hours  ; and  at  last  they 
were  forced  to  leave  the  matter  to  him  by  a 
special  verdict. 

The  verdict  of  the  tithe  trial  may  be  antici- 
pated. The  Rev.  Mr.  O’Sullivan  was  ac- 
quitted ; there  was  not  a particle  of  evidence 
against  him  that  could  be  even  tortured  into 
criminality.  The  other  traversers  were  both 
fined  and  imprisoned. 

There  is  a priest  in  Kerry  to-day,  the  Rev. 


Tithe  Agitation  in  Kerry . 275 

Father  O’Connor,  P.P.,  of  Ballybunnion,  and  he 
tells  us  that  he  was  but  a little  lad  of  some  six 
years  old,  when  he  saw  his  father  carried  off  to 
gaol  for  this  offence — for  taking  part  in  a peace- 
ful agitation,  in  which  it  was  proved  that  he 
especially  recommended  that  there  should  be  no 
violence. 

It  is  sometimes  conveniently  forgotten  that 
there  are  men  who  remember  such  times  and 
such  scenes,  and  who  can  scarcely  be  expected 
to  be  very  devoted  to  a form  of  government 
which  caused  so  much  suffering. 


CHAPTER  XVI 


THE  IRISH  LAND  AGENT. 

“We  must  gird  our  loins  to  encounter  the  Nemesis  of  seven  centuries 
of  misgovernment.  To  the  end  of  time  100,000,000  of  people,  spread 
over  the  largest  habitable  area  in  the  world,  and  confronting  us  every- 
where, by  sea  and  land,  will  remember  that  their  forefathers  paid  tithes 
to  the  Protestant  clergy,  rent  to  absentee  landlords,  and  a forced 
obedience  to  the  laws  which  these  had  made.” — The  Times , May  3, 
i860. 

HE  Irish  land  agent  is  a being  sui 
generis . He  is  an  anomaly  and  an  ana- 
chronism. To  do  his  work,  not  always 
clean,  he  must  combine  something  of  the  steel- 
heartedness of  a Southern  slave-driver  and  the 
tyranny  of  an  eastern  despot.  You  will  say  I ex- 
aggerate.  Pardon.  I shall  give  you  facts,  and 
facts  are  stubborn  things. 

I suppose  the  Irish  land  agent  is  the  most 
absolute  autocrat  on  earth.  Laws  are  made  in 
England  for  the  protection  of  the  Irish  tenant ; 
he  smiles  at  them.  The  king’s  writ  does  not 
run  his  way.  Who  is  to  know  in  the  wilds  of 
Donegal  or  Kerry  what  the  land  agent  does  ? 
Even  when  the  land  agent  is  not  naturally  in- 


The  Irish  Land  Agent.  277 

dined  to  act  the  despot,  his  master’s  interests 
must  be  his  first  consideration. 

The  prestent  agitation  has  had  the  advantage 
of  throwing  no  little  light  on  this  subject.  Lord 
Cork,  an  absentee  southern  landlord,  is  not  con- 
sidered a hard  master.  His  agent,  Mr.  Leahy, 
is  considered,  and  I believe  justly,  an  honour- 
able man.  But  the  present  agitation  has  brought 
out  the  remarkable  fact  that  Lord  Cork’s  tenants 
are  obliged  to  contract  themselves  out  of  the 
benefit  of  the  Land  Act,  made  by  England  for 
their  special  benefit.  This  matter  having  been 
strongly  commented  on  in  the  press,  Mr.  Leahy 
published  the  following  letter  in  the  Cork  Ex- 
aminer : — 

“ Shanakiel  House,  Nov.  igth , 1880. 

“Dear  Sir, — As  the  Rev.  Father  M‘Mahon,  in  a letter 
which  appeared  in  your  journal  of  this  morning,  alludes  to 
the  lease  granted  to  tenants  on  the  Earl  of  Cork’s  estate, 
will  you  kindly  allow  me  a small  space  to  explain  matters. 

“The  Land  Act  of  1870  was  so  loosely  framed  that  im- 
mediately after  it  became  law  solicitors  in  this  country  who 
had  the  dra^'  ng  of  a lease  took  advantage  of  its  vagueness 
and  whether  legally  or  not , inserted  clauses  in  their  clients 
tenants’  leases  endeavouring  to  set  at  naught  some  of  the 
provisions  of  the  Act.  Lord  Cork’s  solicitor  was  no  ex- 
ception, and  in  the  leases  there  was  inserted  a clause  in 
which  the  tenant  bound  himself  to  forego  any  claim  here- 
after under  the  Land  Act. 

“ I candidly  say  I would  much  rather  that  this  clause  had 


278  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 

never  been  introduced,  and  further,  I am  perfectly  certain 
that  had  any  one  noticed  it  at  the  time,  or  remonstrated,  it 
would  have  been  omitted.  I am  very  glad  to  see  that 
Father  M ‘Mahon  says  he  believes  I never  intended  by  per- 
mitting the  introduction  of  the  clause  anything  to  the  detri- 
ment of  the  tenants.  In  this  he  is  right. 

“ I now  wish  to  mention  one  fact  in  connection  with  this 
‘objectionable  clause.’  I was  examined,  at  the  special  re- 
quest of  the  commissioners,  on  the  Tuesday  of  the  week 
they  sat  in  Cork,  and  the  Rev.  Father  M ‘Mahon  was  ex- 
amined on  the  day  following.  I had  not  the  remotest  idea 
that  he  was  about  to  be  examined,  or  of  his  intention  as  to 
evidence  when  examined.  I took  one  of  the  estate  lease? 
with  me  and  handed  it  in  to  the  chairman  purposely  to  point 
out  this  very  dause.  Why?  To  prove  the  looseness  of  the 
Act  of  1870,  and  call  upon  the  commission  to  have  the  new 
Bill  so  framed  as  to  prevent  landlord,  agent,  or  tenant 
wriggling  out  of  its  provisions.  Father  M‘Mahon  was  ex- 
amined the  following  day  and  brought  forward  the  subject 
again.  On  this  I determined  in  my  own  mind  (which  I must 
confess  was  never  very  happy  about  it)  to  lay  the  matter 
before  the  Earl  of  Cork,  and  request  him  to  cancel  the 
clause.  He  at  once  consented,  and  gave  me  instructions  to 
obliterate  it  from  his  leases.  This  decision  1 intended  to 
announce  when  on  the  estate  next  week,  but  I am  glad 
Father  M‘Mahon  has  now  given  me  an  opportunity  of  doing 
so. — I remain,  dear  sir,  faithfully  yours, 

“ D.  F.  Leahy.” 

Now,  here  is  a most  curious  instance  of  the 
fashion  in  which  Ireland  is  governed.  We  have 
the  land  agent  of  an  extensive  property  declar- 
ing that  he  did  not  know  how  the  leases  had 


7 he  Irish  Land  Agent . 


279 


been  drawn.  But,  was  it  not  his  duty  to  know  ? 
And  we  find  the  curious  and  instructive  state- 
ment that  Irish  solicitors  are  in  the  habit  of  de- 
priving Irish  tenants  of  legal  rights. 

There  is,  however,  one  noteworthy  feature  in 
all  such  cases.  Land  agents  here  have  never 
let  anything  slip  into  their  leases,  or  agreements 
with  tenants,  which  is  to  the  disadvantage  of 
the  landlord.  No  doubt  this  is  their  duty  ; but 
have  they  not  also  a most  sacred  duty  towards 
those  who  are  utterly  and  helplessly  dependent 
on  them  ? The  Times  said  lately  : — 

“ The  Irish  landlords  themselves  cannot  fail  to  see  that 
their  own  interests  require  change,  it  may  be  a great  change, 
in  the  Irish  land  laws.” 

It  is  to  be  feared  they  will  not  see  it,  so  long 
as  it  is  possible  for  them  to  protect  themselves 
on  every  side,  and  to  have  their  tenants  at  their 
mercy. 

A recent  writer  in  the  Tablet  complains  of 
the  difficulty  of  hearing  the  truth  about  Ireland. 
He  cites  the  famous,  or  infamous,  Boycott  case 
as  an  example.  Lord  Erne  has  declared  that 
he  heard  nothing  of  the  grievances  of  his  tenants 
until  after  they  became  notorious.  Now,  if  the 
writer  had  known  anything  about  Irish  land 
agents  he  would  have  understood  the  matter 


2 So  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

very  easily.  The  Irish  landlord’s  method  of 
dealing  with  his  tenantry  is  very  simple.  He 
never  sees  them,  or,  if  he  does  see  any  of  his 
tenants,  he  only  sees  those  who  live  in  the  im- 
mediate vicinity  of  the  place  which  he  visits  for 
a few  weeks  in  the  year.  There  are,  I am  con- 
vinced, millions  of  Irish  tenants  who  have  never 
seen  their  landlords.  If  any  complaint  is  made 
it  is  always  referred  to  the  agent.  Hence,  for 
the  most  part,  the  people  have  ceased  to  com- 
plain. The  agent  makes  very  short  work  of 
the  matter.  His  business,  or  at  least  his  object 
is,  to  save  himself  as  much  trouble  as  possible. 

I know  that  English  gentlemen  have  not  even 
the  least  idea  of  the  autocratic  rule  of  an  Irish 
land  agent.  I am  certain  that  they  could  not 
imagine  it,  unless  they  lived  for  some  time  in 
an  Irish  country  district  and  knew  the  people 
and  their  surroundings  intimately.  But  do  not 
take  my  word  for  this.  My  object  in  writing 
the  present  work  is  to  give  information  on  reli- 
able authority.  Would  any  English  gentleman 
believe  that  lunacy  would  be  considered  a special 
qualification  for  a land  agent  or  a landlord  ? 
Yet  the  special  correspondent  of  the  Daily 
I clegraph  describes  one  thus  : — 

“ One  of  the  difficulties  under  which  landlords  labour  in 
Ireland  nndoubtedly  arises  from  the  smallness  of  their 


The  Irish  Land  Agent . 


281 


number.  They  cannot  cope  single-handed  with  the  crowd 
around  them,  unless  they  are  very  determined  and  clever 
men.  Occasionally  such  a gentleman  does,  however,  turn 
up,  and  I heard  of  one  of  them  yesterday.  The  man  in 
question  has  been  proved,  by  a court  of  his  fellow-country- 
men, to  have  been  mad,  at  any  rate  during  a portion  of  his 
life,  and  is  regarded,  rightly  or  wrongly,  as  something  more 
than  eccentric  now.  The  bold  peasantry,  amongst  whom  he 
lives  in  Galway,  are,  in  fact,  afraid  of  him.  He  is  known  to 
be  always  armed,  and  as  a “lunatic” — for  such  he  would  be 
considered,  were  he  to  shoot  anyone — he  would  never  be 
punished,  were  he  to  fire  at  another  man  in  a moment  of 
rage,  while  he  is  powerful  and  vigorous  in  frame  and  noted 
as  a ‘dead  shot.’  It  is  reasonable,  then,  that  he  should  not 
be  greatly  admired  by  the  people,  wrho  like  ‘ soft  * landlords 
to  deal  with.  An  attempt  to  ‘ Boycott  ’ him,  as  the  process 
of  starving  out  is  called,  failed  ignominiously,  no  shopkeeper 
having  the  hardihood  to  refuse  him  goods.  One  threatening 
letter  received  by  him  made  him,  so  it  is  said,  behave  so 
wildly  that  no  one  dreams  of  favouring  him  with  another.” 

The  land  agent  in  any  Belgravian  drawingroom 
and  the  land  agent  or  landlord  who  acts  as  his 
own  agent  in  the  wilds  of  Connemara  or  Kerry 
are  very  different  persons.  Mr.  Charles  Russell, 
M.P.,  in  his  letters  to  the  Daily  Telegraph , 
mentions  instances  of  this  fearful  terrorism  in 
Kerry.  He  says: — 

“ I found  the  greatest  dread  prevailing  amongst  the  ten- 
ants of  having  their  names  disclosed.  At  first  I had  diffi- 
culty in  even  getting  them  to  converse,  until  they  became 


282  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated, 

assured  that  our  feelings  were  friendly  towards  them,  but 
even  then,  with  hardly  an  exception,  they  spoke  protesting 
that  it  would  be  ruin  to  them  if  it  was  known  that  they  had 
communicated  any  facts  to  us.  I do  not  doubt  that  this 
dread  was  to  some  extent  uncalled-for,  but  it  was  assuredly 
real.  Nothing  impressed  me  more  than  the  state  of  terror 
in  which,  speaking  as  a rule,  they  seemed  to  live.  One  man, 
apparently  well-to-do,  was  mentioning  a circumstance  of 
some  significance  in  the  agent’s  management ; but,  upon 
perceiving  that  the  shorthand  writer  who  accompanied  me 
was  taking  a note  of  his  observation,  he  became  alarmed, 
and  said  it  would  be  ruin  to  him  if  he  were  known  to  have 
said  anything  about  the  agent,  and  requested  us  on  no 
account  to  mention  his  name. 

“ On  another  occasion,  and  on  the  same  estate,  a remark- 
able incident  occurred.  A man  who  was  a high  class  type 
of  the  Kerry  peasant,  commanding  in  figure,  with  an  intelli- 
gent and  even  refined  face,  upon  our  meeting  him  on  the 
threshold  of  his  door  (we  had  been  told  that  his  case  was  a 
hard  one)  drew  himself  to  his  full  height,  and,  raising  his 
hands  earnestly,  cried  out,  ‘ For  God’s  sake,  gentlemen,  pass 
me  by — pass  me  by !’  We  were  startled.  We  afterwards 
learned  that  years  ago  he  had  given  information  as  to  the 
management  of  the  estate  to  the  representative  of  a southern 
paper  in  Ireland,  since  which  it  had  been  noticed  that  he 
had  been  made  to  feel  the  weight  of  the  agent’s  ill  will.  For 
these  reasons  I reluctantly  abstain  from  giving  the  names  of 
the  tenants  whose  cases  I investigated,  but  I can  assure 
your  readers  that  I used  every  precaution  to  arrive  at  the 
truth  in  each  instance.  Occasionally  lightheartedness  and 
cheerfulness  appeared  amongst  the  tenantry,  but  these  were 
rare  ; and  the  humour  with  which  the  Irish  peasant  is  fre- 
quently credited  has,  if  it  ever  existed,  been  stamped  out  of 
Kerry  by  the  sad  realities  of  their  lives  of  want  With  all 


The  Irish  Land  Agent.  2^3 

this  they  have  managed  to  preserve  a certain  dignity  and 
grace  of  manner,  and  they  are  very  intelligent.” 

Again  he  says  : 

“ A farther  portion  of  the  estate  lies  beyond  Cahirciveen, 
on  the  coast  road  to  Kenmare,  near  Waterville.  Both  por- 
tions possess  many  characteristics  in  common.  The  houses 
are  in  appearance  inferior  to  those  on  the  Kenmare  portion 
of  the  property  ; otherwise  there  is,  Ithink,  little  difference. 
While,  however,  the  same  feeling  in  reference  to  the  agency 
of  the  estate  seems  to  exist  here,  I was  somewhat  surprised 
to  find  that  a freer  tone  of  criticism  and  a more  independent 
attitude  was  assumed  by  the  tenants  than  in  the  Kenmare 
neighbourhood.  There  they  seemed  literally  afraid  to  call 
their  souls  their  own.  It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  they  spoke 
with  bated  breath,  as  if  afraid  agent  or  bailiff  might  hear 
them.  Here  they  spoke  out  their  complaints  with  greater 
freedom  and  boldness.  The  greater  distance  from  the  agent’s 
eye  perhaps  accounted  for  the  difference.  Lord  Lansdowne 
was  unknown  to  them.  The  few  who  had  ever  seen  him 
had  done  so  upon  the  occasion  of  his  attaining  his  majority. 
Mr.  Trench  had  only  been  there  once  in  the  last  five  years, 
and  then  his  visit  had  been  short.  Neither  landlord  nor 
agent  had  visited  them  in  the  time  of  their  distress,  although 
Canon  Brosnan,  the  parish  priest  of  Cahirciveen,  had  given 
timely  written  warning  to  Lord  Lansdowne  that  the  con- 
dition of  his  Cahirciveen  tenantry  was  likely  to  be  one  of 
great  suffering  and  privation.  Practically,  the  control  of 
this  part  of  the  estate  is  in  the  hands  of  bailiffs,  of  whom 
the  principal  one  lives  at  Waterville.  I was  unable  to  find 
that  any  considerable  money  had  been  laid  out.  by  the  land- 
lord, and  where  it  had  been  is.  in  the  pound  had  been  added 
to  the  rent  as  a permanent  increase.” 


284  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

The  special  correspondent  of  the  Standard , 
who  manifestly  was  sent  to  give  the  landlords’ 
views  of  Ireland,  calls  this  kind  of  government 
peremptory,  and  actually  gives  from  the  very 
life  of  a land  agent  his  account  of  his  autocratic 
style  of  government,  of  which  he  is  not  a little 
proud  : — 

“ As  to  the  meddling  by  the  tenants  with  the  wood  on  the 
estate,  Mr.  Trench  himself  related  an  instance  of  his  rigour. 
A tenant  cut  down  a tree.  He  was  remonstrated  with,  but 
his  answer  was  defiant.  Mr.  Trench  thereupon  took  away 
half  his  farm,  pour  encourager  les  autres.  Another  man, 
named  John  Sullivan,  of  Cuddudagh,  was  summoned  before 
the  magistrates  for  cutting  boughs  and  ‘ spars  ’ and  twigs  to 
bind  his  thatch,  which  a violent  wind  had  disarranged.  His 
wife  went  to  the  agent’s  office  to  ask  that  her  husband  might 
not  be  proceeded  against,  but  she  was  told  that  the  law 
must  take  its  course.  The  man  was  fined  12s.,  including 
costs.  This  story  was  furnished  to  me  by  a gentleman 
whose  veracity  I have  no  reason  to  doubt.  As  to  the  per- 
manent increase  of  rent  in  consequence  of  the  sale  of  lime, 
we  have  here  an  arrangement  of  a rather  singular  kind. 
Through  the  middle  of  the  Lansdowne  estate  a vein  of 
limestone  runs.  Until  lately,  many  farmers  had  each  his 
own  lime  kiln,  as  lime  is  extensively  used  to  lighten  the 
heavy,  peaty  soil.  It  occurred  to  Mr.  Trench  that  lime 
could  be  made  cheaper  by  having  a central  kiln,  and, 
accordingly,  it  was  erected.  Lime  was  then  sold  to  the 
tenants  at  is.  6d.  per  barrel,  and  the  old  kilns  went  out  of 
use.  Under  this  system  some  6,000  barrels  of  lime  were 
sold  annually.  But  it  was  proposed  that,  instead  of  paying 
for  each  separate  barrel  of  lime,  a penny  in  the  pound  should 


The  Irish  Land  Agent . 285 

be  added  permanently  to  the  rent,  and  the  lime  given  with- 
out charge.  The  tenants  appear  to  have  approved  of  this 
plan ; for,  instead  of  6,000  barrels,  there  was  immediately 
an  annual  sale  of  12,000  ” 

As  to  the  approval  of  the  farmers,  they  had 
Hobson’s  choice,  and  their  approval  of  any 
arrangement  made  for  them  would  be  neither 
cared  for  nor  asked.  Mr.  Russell  gives  a 
sufficient  proof  of  this  in  another  of  his  letters 
on  Kerry  : — 

“See  the  easy  fashion  in  which  the  rise  of  rent  is  accom- 
plished. No  independent  valuation,  no  mutual  negotiation. 
The  mandate  of  the  agent  goes  forth.  Some  may  grumble, 
even  grumble  in  a loud  voice,  but  it  is  useless.  They  are 
practically  without  alternative,  they  must  submit.  A fact, 
to  my  mind  positively  shocking,  was  told  to  me  by  a gentle- 
man, in  every  way  reliable,  in  reference  to  this  last  rise.  On 
that  occasion,  when  Mr.  Trench  had  issued  his  commands 
to  'his  bailiffs,  and  had  condescended  to  notify  the  rise  to 
some  of  the  tenants,  he  said  to  my  informant,  * I have  done 
two  good  days’  work  ; I have  put  ^10,000  in  Lord  Lans- 
downe’s  pocket.’  In  other  words,  he  had  additionally  taxed 
the  energies  and  the  industry  of  Lord  Lansdowne’s  Iveragh 
tenants  to  the  tune  of  ^50.0  a year ! Once  more  I ask,  is 
it  remarkable  that  in  Ireland  cultivation  is  backward,  that 
poverty  abounds,  that  discontent  is  wide  spread,  that  social 
progress  is  slow,  that  man  so  little  responds  to  the  efforts  of 
Nature  for  his  advantage,  that  in  conditions  like  these,  thrift 
and  industry  do  not  flourish?” 

The  Standard  correspondent  gives  an  amus- 


286  The  Case  0/ Ireland  stated . 

ing  account  of  the  way  in  which  a land  agent 
prepared  himself  for  the  peremptory  rule.  He 
says,  the  land  agent,  whose  name  he  does  not 
mention,  is  an  expert  bicyclist,  and  that  he  has 
been  spending  a considerable  time  every  day 
firing  shots  at  a target  as  he  flew  by  it  on  his 
bicycle.  Who  could  not  wish  and  pray  that 
a just  and  more  humane  system  of  govern- 
ment should  remove  all  this  miserable  ter- 
rorism ? 

I believe,  if  a careful  inquiry  were  made,  that 
it  would  be  found  in  every  place  where  agrarian 
outrages  have  been  committed,  or  where  whole- 
sale evictions  have  been  made,  that  a system 
of  terrorism,  and  unjust  raising  of  rent,  and 
other  unfair  levying  of  burdens  on  the  people, 
have  been  the  cause.  If  this  is  so,  would  it  not 
be  more  just  if  less  blame  was  cast  on  the 
people  and  more  on  the  system  ? 

The  great  middle  class  in  England  are  un- 
questionably becoming  enlightened  on  this  point. 
Unhappily  those  whom  enlightenment  would 
benefit  most  are  often  the  very  last  to  obtain  it. 
In  a leader  in  the  London  Weekly  Despatch  of 
November,  1880,  we  find  the  following  : — 

“ So,  leaving  the  peasants  to  take  care  of  themselves,  he 
lent  the  gentry,  at  a nominal  interest,  as  much  public  money 
as  they  chose  to  ask  for,  to  be  advantageously  spent— while 


The  Irish  Land  Agent. 


2 87 


wages  were  uncommonly  low — in  improving  their  estates,  it 
being  well  understood  on  all  sides  that  the  tenant  would 
have  to  pay  the  interest  on  the  debt  to  the  government,  and 
also  a handsome  profit  interest  to  the  landlord,  and  further- 
more a highly  increased  rent  on  the  land  so  improved. 
Similarly  we  are  given  to  understand  that,  if  Lord  Beacons- 
field  were  now  in  power,  he  would  take  a correct  view  of 
the  present  situation.  He  would  straightway  lock  up  the 
agitators,  confiscate  the  plant  of  the  Nation  newspaper,  put 
the  Freeman  in  fetters,  and  establish  martial  law  throughout 
the  whole  island,  and  then  rest  upon  his  oars  and  laurels. 
Unfortunately  for  these  Tory  optimists,  Lord  Beaconsfield 
is  no  longer  in  power.  But  in  his  place  we  have  a minister 
who,  although  he  consents  to  the  doubtful  experiment  of 
prosecuting  some  of  the  Land  Leaguers,  is  imbued  with  the 
foolish  but  popular,  and  indeed  well-nigh  universal,  notion 
that  “ there  is  no  smoke  without  some  fire,”  and  who  has 
avowed  his  conviction  that  the  somewhat  thick  smoke  which 
at  present  obscures  the  Irish  landscape  has  its  origin  in  the 
fires  of  a long-smouldering  and  perfectly  justifiable  discon- 
tent with  an  iniquitous  system  of  legalised  oppression,  which 
no  nation  of  men,  worthy  to  be  so  called,  can  be  expected 
meekly  to  put  up  with  ; and  that  the  true  way  to  settle  the 
Irish  question  is  not  to  hunt  down  the  agitators,  but  to  free 
the  land.” 

Yet  such  is  the  force  of  opinion  against  Ire- 
land in  England,  that  we  find  the  following  in 
another  part  of  the  same  paper  : — 

“A  TIME  OF  BLOOD. 

“ It  would  appear  just  now  as  if  murder  was  in  the  very 
air  we  breathe.  If  we  pass  from  Ireland,  where  peasants 


283 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


go  behind  walls  to  butcher  peers,  and  peers,  sheltering  them- 
selves behind  the  powers  conferred  by  iniquitous  laws,  pass 
“ sentences  of  starvation,  sentences  of  death,'’  upon  hapless 
peasants,  we  find,  on  turning  our  eyes  to  our  own  country, 
that  there  is  bloodshed  all  around.  From  nearly  every  part 
of  England  the  daily  papers  bring  us  accounts  of  murders. 
To  begin  with  the  metropolis,  there  is  the  Finsbury  Park 
murder,  and  Acton  supplies  us  with  a crime  of  greater  bru- 
tality. From  the  Eastern  counties  came  only  the  other  day 
the  report  of  a terrible  and  most  determined  murder  at 
Audley  End.” 

Now,  in  this  paper,  where  there  is  a real 
anxiety  manifest  to  be  just  to  Ireland,  we  have 
the  old  absurd  story  of  Irish  peasants  occupy- 
ing themselves  with  butchering  peers.  During 
the  whole  agitation  only  one  “ lord  ” was  mur- 
dered. Lord  Leitrim's  murder  occurred  before 
the  present  agitation  began,  and  yet  the  English 
papers  ring  with  accusations  of  Irishmen,  as  if 
they  were  all  murderers.  As  we  have  said  before, 
let  it  be  decided,  once  for  all,  by  law,  as  it  was 
actually  the  “law’*  in  Ireland,  not  so  many 
years  since,  that  the  murder  of  an  English  land- 
lord or  land  agent  in  Ireland  is  a greater  crime 
than  a murder  in  England ; and  we  should 
know  where  we  are.  But  until  that  is  decided 
it  is  better  to  keep  to  facts,  and  the  facts  are, 
that  the  murders  and  other  outrages  in  Ireland, 
are  far  fewer  than  they  are  in  England.  Why, 


The  Irish  Land  Agent.  289 

then,  are  we  to  be  perpetually  taunted  with 
them  ? 

I think  if  it  was  known  that  there  is  rarely 
ever  outrage,  or  disorder,  or  discontent  in 
any  part  of  Ireland  where  there  has  not  pre- 
viously been  aggravated  oppression  on  the  part 
of  the  land  agent  or  landlord,  that  it  would  go 
far  to  make  the  state  of  Ireland  more  correctly 
understood.  And  since  there  can  be  no  possi- 
ble gain  to  either  party  from  ignorance,  we  do 
hope  earnestly  that  the  truth  may  become  known. 
It  may  seem  hard  to  say  it,  but  it  is  true,  that 
only  those  who  have  an  interest  in  concealing 
the  truth  are  anxious  to  do  so. 

The  Galtee  property  of  Mr.  Buckley  came 
not  so  long  since  into  painful  prominence  because 
of  an  agrarian  outrage.  Here,  in  a few  short 
sentences  is,  not  the  excuse,  for  there  is  no  ex- 
cuse for  murder,  but  the  plain  manifest  cause. 
Was  the  murderer,  then,  the  only  guilty  person  ? 
Will  there  not  be  yet  another  tribunal  where 
this  terrible  greed  for  gain  will  be  judged,  and 
where  the  sentence  may  be  heavy  ? 


“ Amongst  the  witnesses  examined  before  the  Land 
Commission  were  the  Rev.  David  Burdon,  Mitchelstown, 
who  submitted  the  following  statement : — 

“ * I propose,  in  the  first  place,  to  state  the  relations 

T 


290 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated \ 


between  landlord  and  tenant  on  the  properties  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Mitchelstown,  and  will  begin  with  the 

“ ‘ I. — Buckley  Property. 

“ ‘ Mr.  N.  Buckley  purchased  his  Galtee  estate  from  an 
English  company,  of  which  he  was  a member.  A successful 
manufacturer,  he  bought  it,  to  traffic  on  it  as  on  any  other 
commodity.  Having  procured  the  services  of  Mr.  Patten 
Bridge  as  agent,  the  property  was  re  valued  by  a Mr.  Waller, 
and  increases  of  rent  ranging  from  fifty  to  five  hundred  per 
cent,  were  imposed  upon  a wretched  mountain  tenantry, 
whose  sweat  had  made  the  wild,  rocky,  and  slushy  slopes  of 
the  Galtees  capable  of  producing  anything.  Under  their 
former  landlords  they  paid  little,  and  if  they  paid  nothing 
they  could  hardly  subsist.  Wretched  hovels,  rags  for  gar- 
ments, turnips  and  Indian  meal  for  food — such  was  their 
condition.  No  wonder,  therefore,  the  notices  demanding 
increased  rent  evoked  terrible  passions. 

“ ‘ I beg  leave  to  hand  in  as  evidence  the  affidavits  of 
about  fifty  of  these  poor  people ; also  tables  showing  old 
rents  and  increases,  copies  of  notices  signed  by  Mr.  Bridge, 
and  to  point  to  the  charge  of  Mr.  Justice  Barry  in  the  trial 
of  Bridge  versus  Casey. 

“ ‘ This  confiscation  of  tenants’  improvements,  and  fearful 
rack-renting,  which  was  a beggaring  of  beggars,  was  evidently 
a crying  injustice  and  developed  a fierce  war.  The  condition 
of  these  miserable  Galtee  peasants  is  proved  further  by  the 
fact  that  an  immense  number  of  them,  nearly  300,  were  re- 
ceiving, from  Dr.  Delany  and  the  charitable  committee  of 
Ballyporeen,  relief  up  to  the  15  th  August  last  (I  make  a 
present  of  the  documents). 

u ‘ II. — Kingston  Estate. 

44  ‘ I come  next  to  the  Kingston  estate.  I must  say  the 


The  Irish  Land  Agent. 


291 


management  of  the  Kingston  property  contrasts  favourably 
with  that  of  any  other  within  my  knowledge.  The  area 
comprises  about  23,000  acres  ; rent  about  ^19,000  a year, 
average  above  poor  law  about  twenty  per  cent.  The  farms 
in  the  eastern  portion  are  high  enough,  as  the  land  is  not  so 
good.  In  some  few  cases  the  rent  is  nearly  double  the 
valuation  here.  Mr.  Bridge,  who  was  joint  agent  with  Mr. 
Sadlier  before  his  translation  to  the  Galtees,  left  his  mark 
upon  some  of  the  farms.  It  is  calculated  he  raised  the 
rental  nearly  ^4,000. 


Such  plain,  undeniable  statements  speak  for 
themselves,  and  I am  convinced  if  every  case 
where  there  has  been  outrage  or  where  numbers 
of  tenants  have  joined  in  denouncing  oppression, 
were  inquired  into,  that  real  solid  ground  for 
their  complaints  would  be  found. 

And  here  I will  ask  consideration  of  a few 
remarks  about  the  non-payment  of  rent.  Irish 
tenants  are  being  held  up  to  unlimited  obloquy 
and  abuse  in  the  English  papers,  because,  it  is 
said,  they  have  refused  to  pay  their  rents  or 
they  have  offered  only  Griffith’s  Valuation.  In 
the  latter  case,  they  are  accused  of  taking  the 
law  into  their  own  hands.  Now,  I will  ask  this 
question — is  the  Irish  tenant  to  starve,  in  order 
to  pay  his  rent  ? But,  you  will  say,  there  is  no 
question  of  starvation  now.  True;  but  there  was 
question  of  starvation  at  the  beginning-  of  this 


292  The  Case  of  Ireland  staled. 

year ; in  fact,  to  my  own  personal  knowledge, 
far  into  the  year.  The  consequence  of  this  is, 
that  the  people  are  deeply  in  debt  for  the  abso- 
lute necessaries  of  life  to  the  small  tradesmen  in 
every  country  town  in  Ireland.  Is  the  landlord 
then  to  get  all , and  is  the  shopkeeper  to  get 
none  ? If  this  is  morality,  it  is  nineteenth  cen- 
tury morality.  If  it  is  to  be  the  law  for  the 
future  in  Ireland,  it  would  be  better  that  the 
people  be  slaves  at  once ; their  masters  would 
then,  for  their  own  sakes,  feed  and  clothe  them. 
It  is  certainly  extraordinary  the  inconsistencies 
and  absurdities  to  which  people  are  driven  when, 
from  prejudice  or  ignorance,  they  can  only  look 
at  one  side  of  a question.  No  one  has  a word 
about  the  poor  shopkeeper ; all  the  pity  is  for 
the  rich  landlord.  If  any  one  must  suffer  would 
it  not  be  better  that  the  rich  should  suffer  ? Are 
they  never  to  share  in  any  national  calamity  ? 
Are  they  to  be  allowed  to  turn  it  to  their  own 
profit  and  then  to  be  condoled  with  as  if  they 
were  martyrs  ? 

But,  it  is  said,  how  is  the  landlord  to  meet 
his  annuities,  and  rent-charges,  and  what  not  ? 
Well,  how  is  the  shopkeeper  to  pay  for  his  mer- 
chandize ? The  landlord  can  get  unlimited 
credit ; the  shopkeeper  cannot.  The  shop- 
keepers have  made  many  and  great  sacrifices 


The  Irish  Land  Agent. 


293 


for  the  people ; most  assuredly,  very  few  land- 
lords have  made  any  sacrifices. 

Mr.  Tuke  says  : — 

“ Without  the  money  distributed  by  the  Dublin  Funds 
< many  would  have  starved.’  The  farmers  around  Carrick, 
and  generally  along  the  banks  of  the  Shannon,  have  suffered 
most  severely  during  the  last  season  from  the  overflowing  of 
the  river.  The  loss  could  not  be  estimated  at  less  than 
^£5 0,000,  much  of  which  might  have  been  saved,  by  proper 
arrangements  regarding  the  drainage  of  the  Shannon. 

Where  were  the  landlords?  If  they  had 
spent  half  the  time  trying  to  help  their  tenants 
in  such  matters  that  they  have  spent  in  writing 
unmanly  letters  to  the  Times , about  the  non- 
payment of  their  rents,  they  would  have  bene- 
fitted  themselves  and  the  whole  country. 

Again,  Mr.  Tuke  says  : — 

“ The  people,  as  we  were  told,  were  very  poor,  and  were 
eating  up  their  resources.  Some  are  cottiers,  i.e.,  people 
who  have  a house  and  garden  or  small  plot,  say  half  to  one 
acre  and  no  more ; but  they  are  chiefly  small  farmers. 
Want  of  clothing,  here,  as  elsewhere,  very  great.  One  very 
sad  case,  may  be  quoted — a small,  farmer,  with  about  fifteen 
acres,  a Protestant,  who  had  been  in  good  circumstances. 
A year  or  two  ago  the  family  were  well  dressed ; children  at 
school ; and  the  older  ones  in  the  church  choir.  Now,  the 
man  is  miserably  dressed,  and  his  family,  six  or  eight  chil- 
dren, in  rags.  They  crowded  around  a miserable  fire,  cook- 


294  7/fo  Case  of  Irela?id  stated, 

ing  the  stirabout  and  Indian  meal  cakes  ; all  more  or  less 
affected  with  skin  disease,  very  bad  and  infectious,  the  result 
of  low  diet ; all  looked  thin,  pale,  and  wretched,  and  evi- 
dently wanted  nourishment.  ‘It’s  no  use  prescribing,’  said 
the  doctor ; 4 it’s  nourishing  food  they  want.  What’s  to  be 
done  ?’  4 Well,’  said  the  man,  4 I’ve  sold  the  bullock  to  pay 

the  rent,  and  the  bit  of  corn  for  meal,  and  even  the  goose 
the  wife  sold  for  some  little  thing ; and  I’ve  only  the  wee 
bit  cow  c nd  little  calf  left,  and  the  pony  to  till  the  land. 
What  can  I do?  I suppose,’  he  added,  in  a desponding 
tone,  4 1 must  sell  them  also,  and  go  into  the  workhouse.’  ” 

Now,  how  is  such  a man  to  pay  his  rent,  after 
such  a year?  He  may  sell  the  “ wee  bit  cow” 
and  little  calf  and  the  poor  old  pony  and  clear 
what  is  due.  How  is  he  to  pay  the  rent  next 
year  and  to  live  ? Mr.  Tuke  adds  : “ It  is  most 
painful  to  see  cases  of  this  kind ; and  for  one 
seen  there  are  probably  hundreds  unseen.”1 
Unseen  to  man,  indeed  ; but  they  are  not  unseen 
to  their  Maker.  Nor  does  He  fail  to  see  and 
to  note  the  cruel  reproaches  heaped  upon  a 
hapless  people,  who  have  suffered  such  sacri- 
fices to  pay  their  rents  and  all  their  honest  debts 
as  are  only  known  to  Him  and  to  themselves.2 


1 “Irish,  Distress  and  its  Remedies ,”  p.  37. 

2 I solemnly  declare  that  I know  cases  in  which  respectable  men  have 
lived  on  dry  bread  and  tea,  as  their  food,  for  months  during  this  past 
year,  that  they  might  be  able  to  pay  their  rents  and  their  debts. 


295 


The  Irish  Land  Agent. 

Here  is  what  Mr.  Tulce  has  to  say  of  the 
condition  of  thousands  of  families.  Here  is 
the  verdict  of  a calm,  dispassionate  Englishman 
— a member  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  a man 
absolutely  free  from  all  party  politics,  a man 
above  all  suspicion  of  partiality  or  prejudice  on 
any  side.  He  writes  of  his  visit  to  Meena- 
claddy  thus  : — 

“ Of  the  destitution  and  misery  found  in'  these  bog-dwell- 
ings, I feel,  after  a lapse  of  twenty-four  hours,  that  I 
can  hardly  bring  myself  to  write.  It  is  not  merely  the  un- 
usual distress  of  to-day,  arising  from  the  causes  which  I have 
enumerated,  but  the  every-day  life,  the  normal  condition  of 
hundreds,  nay,  thousands  of  families  on  the  west  coast  of 
Donegal,  and  of  many  other  parts  of  the  west  of  Ireland, 
which  oppresses  me.  But,  on  this  normal  condition — this 
every-day  contest  with  existence  and  hardship — I must  not 
dwell  here.” 

Yes;  and  here  in  Kerry  there  are  thousands 
of  families  in  the  same  condition — a condition, 
the  consequence  of  this  misgovernment  of  hun- 
dreds of  years,  a consequence  of  suppressing 
every  Irish  industry,  of  neglect  of  our  fisheries, 
of  contempt  of  our  prayers,  and  of  the  irrespon- 
sible government  of  Ireland  by  landlords  and 
land  agents. 

And  the  people,  forsooth,  who  can  barely 
exist,  are  to  be  taunted  with  not  paying  rents 


296  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated 

after  three  years  of  awful  distress  and  one  year 
of  famine.  And  they  are  to  be  taunted  with 
offering  “ only  Griffith’s  valuation  ” to  their 
landlords,  because  they  wish,  when  they  can 
pay  anything,  to  give  at  least  part  of  what  they 
owe  to  the  shop-keepers.  And,  in  order  to 
terrify  them  into  doing  what  they  know  to  be 
wrong,  in  order  to  terrify  them  into  giving  all 
to  the  landlord  and  nothing  to  the  shop-keeper, 
whose  charity  and  credit  has  saved  them  from 
famine,  they  are  to  be  served  with  “ Dublin 
ejectments,”  and  to  have  writs  served  on  them 
at  the  very  doors  of  the  rent-office,  if  they  are 
even  one  day  late  with  their  payments. 

And  then  the  agent  will  boast  how  he  has 
terrified  the  people  into  submission,  and  taunt 
them  with  being  able  to  pay  if  they  liked,  as  he 
says  he  has  proved  by  making  them  pay. 
Certainly,  they  have  paid,  but  how  ? By  selling 
their  stock ; next  year  they  must  be  bankrupt ; 
what  matter.  He  will  eject  them — another 
tenant  will  be  found.  The  “ estate  ” will  get 
all  the  benefit.  There  will  be  a handsome 
“ fine  ” paid  by  the  new  tenant,  who  is  foolish 
enough  to  hope  against  hope,  and  to  think  he 
will  succeed  where  his  predecessor  has  failed. 

And  the  shop-keeper  is  left  to  live  on  the 
verge  of  ruin,  because  he  cannot  be  paid.  A 


The  Irish  Land  Agent. 


297 


fancy  picture,  you  will  say!  Would  to  God  it 
were ; but  the  imagination  of  “ Friends  ” is  not 
supposed  to  be  very  vivid,  and  here  is  a 
“ Friend’s  ’’  statement  of  facts  : — 

“ The  man,  who  seemed  an  industrious  fellow,  was  work- 
ing on  the  bog,  in  spite  of  the  weather,  seeking  to  cultivate 
a little  ground  for  the  coming  season.  He  had  1 no  baste 
left,  neither  cow  nor  sheep,  only  three  or  four  fowls.’  He 
had  been  to  Scotland  for  the  harvest  last  autumn,  but  had 
come  back  without  earnings,  and  now,  in  debt  for  meal  and 
rent,  he  was  beaten. 

“ A shop-keeper  stated  that  he  had  over  ^4,000  owing  to 
him,  for  meal  or  other  articles,  by  the  little  cottiers  and 
farmers  around,  the  whole  of  which  he  had  no  doubt  would 
be  repaid  if  good  times  came  again.  His  relatives — who 
are  working  hard  for  the  poor  at  Burtonport,  a few  miles 
distant — had  ^10,000  owing  them  for  meal  alone,  which 
they  had  allowed  the  people  to  have  on  credit.  The  credit 
system,  is,  indeed,  universal  here.  At  all  times  most  of  the 
people  are  in  debt  to  the  store  keeper,  who  is  the  little 
banker  of  the  district,  and,  no  doubt,  charges  Hull  rates’ 
for  his  small  loans.” 


After  describing  the  wretched  condition  of  a 
poor  widow  woman,  he  says  : — 

“ The  woman,  whose  husband  had  been  dead  a few 
months,  looked  ill  and  weak,  and  was  suffering  from  oph- 
thalmia. In  her  arms  was  her  last  infant,  a thin  and  sickly 
one,  with  hunger  in  its  face,  crying,  no  doubt,  for  the 
nourishment  which  the  allowance  of  meal  could  not  give. 
The  only  clothing  on  this  and  three  other  very  young 


2gS  Ike  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

children  consisted  of  small  calico  shirts,  given  them  by  the 
priest,  which  barely  covered  the  upper  part  of  their  bodies, 
and  showed  how  thin  and  poorly  nourished  they  were. 
Why  is  not  such  a family  cared  for  by  the  Poor  Law? 
may  again  well  be  asked.  But,  as  no  outdoor  relief  is  yet 
given,  miserable  and  suffering  as  she  was,  the  poor  woman 
could  not  bear  to  give  up  her  house  and  ‘ bit  of  land,* 
hoping  to  hold  it  on  for  ‘ better  days,’  when  her  children 
might  take  it.1  Since  the  husband’s  death  the  neighbours 
had  helped  her  to  crop  it ; and  what  a miserable  ‘ bit’  of 
land  it  was — covered  with  weeds  and  almost  drowned  with 
water,  a rood  or  two  reclaimed  from  the  bog  by  past  years  of 
labour. 

“ The  man  who  gave  the  £125  for  the  tenant  right  told 
me  he  had  earned  the  money  in  America  in  seven  years,  and 
that  he  could  not  obtain  half  this  sum  now  for  the  tenant  right. 
‘ But,’  he  added,  with  emotion,  1 this  is  my  last  year  here  ; 
it’s  no  use,  a man  may  as  well  lie  down  and  die — we  are 
beaten — everything  is  against  us  ; there  are  no  roads  you 
see  to  the  land — the  bit  of  turf  from  the  bog  (about  a cart- 
load) takes  me  two  days  to  carry  upon  my  back  ; I shall  take 
my  wife  and  family  away  to  Ameriky  again.’  When  I asked 
him  why  he  had  come  back  before,  and  bought  the  farm,  he  re- 
plied, with  bitterness,  ‘ Nature  binds  a man  to  his  own 
count  hr ey — but  I can’t  stand  it  any  longer.’  What  true 
pathos  and  sentiment  there  is  in  these  men  ! ” 

True  “ pathos  and  sentiment!”  Yes,  truly,  and 


1 This  poor  woman,  and  many  other  tenants  whose  rents  are  unpaid, 
have,  subsequently  to  our  visit,  been  served  with  processes  (County 
Court  summonses)  for  non-payment  of  rent  due  for  one  or  two  years, 
but  it  is  satisfactory  to  add  that  no  evictions  have  taken  place. 


The  Irish  Land  Agent. 


299 


bitter  agony.  Will  that  man  or  his  descendants 
love  the  step-mother  that  drove  them  into  exile  ? 
Can  it  be  any  matter  of  surprise  not  only  that 
thousands  of  pounds  were  sent  from  America 
to  feed  the  Irish  poor  in  the  Famine,  but  that 
they  are  also  sending  thousands  of  pounds  to 
support  an  agitation,  which  is  the  only  hope  of 
obtaining  such  justice  for  Ireland  as  will  enable 
the  Irish  to  live  in  their  native  land. 


CHAPTER  XVII, 


IRISH  LAND  AGENTS. 

( Continued.) 

“At  present  I am  convinced  that,  under  the  guidance  of  Lords  Cairns 
and  Redesdale,  the  Upper  House  deliberately  intended  to  set  the  Eng- 
lish and  Irish  people  by  the  ears,  to  increase  the  difficulties  of  government, 
and  to  make  conciliatory  legislation  impossible  or  difficult.  But  I trust 
that  the  English  people  will  see  who  is  to  blame  for  the  present  situation. 
— James  E.  Thor  old  Rogers 

UT,  it  will  be  said,  what  is  the  remedy  ? 
I must  leave  to  politicians  the  discussion 
of  such  subjects,  as  far  as  legal  enact- 
ments are  concerned,  but  from  a long  and  inti- 
mate acquaintance  with  the  people  of  Ireland, 
I would  suggest  some  social  points. 

It  is  said  that  thousands  of  the  people  cannot 
live  on  their  holdings,  even  if  they  had  them 
rent  free  ; and  yet,  in  the  next  breath,  we  are 
told  how  wicked  they  are  not  to  pay  their  rents  ! 

In  a letter  addressed  to  myself  by  the 
Marquis  of  Lansdowne,  dated  August  28th, 
1880,  he  says  : — 

“ There  must  always  be  some  destitution  among  a class, 
unfortunately  not  uncommon  upon  my  estate,  men  whose 


The  Irish  Land  Agent.  301 

holdings  would  be  too  small  to  support  them  and  their 
families,  even  if  they  were  rent  free,  in  a decent  degree  of 
comfort  ” 

What  a statement  from  one  of  the  largest  land- 
lords in  Kerry,  and  indeed  in  Ireland. 

And  yet  the  remedy  for  this  state  of  things 
is  to  serve  them  with  ejectments,  and  to  terrify 
them  with  “ Dublin  writs to  add  to  their 
burdens  by  making  them  purchase  lime  which 
they  could  easily  make  for  themselves,  and  to 
give  them  employment  and  make  them  pay  five 
per  cent,  in  perpetuity  on  the  outlay. 

This  is  precisely  what  should  not  be  done  if 
the  Irish  are  to  live  in  Ireland — noblesse  oblige — • 
and  yet  there  are,  I fear,  many  hundred  Irish 
landlords  who,  while  their  tenants  have  endured 
severe  privations,  in  order  to  pay  their  rents 
honestly  for  years,  yet  when  a famine  came  these 
gentlemen  did  not  give  one  gratuitous  sixpence 
to  help  them,  and  only  concerned  themselves 
with  exacting  their  rents  at  the  point  of  the  legal 
bayonet. 

Noblesse  oblige , but  k seems  somehow  to  be 
forgotten  where  Ireland  is  concerned. 

Mr.  Russell  speaks  thus  of  what  I fear  we 
must  call  the  advantage  taken  of  the  people  in 
the  Famine.  The  Standard  correspondent, 
who  appears  to  have  been  sent  down  expressly 


302  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated, \ 

to  do  away  with  any  bad  impression  made  by 
Mr.  Russell,  could  only  admit  that  on  this  point 
he  was  correct — 

“ I find  that  in  the  end  of  1S79  Lord  Lansdowne  offered 
to  his  tenants  drainage  work  on  their  signing  an  agreement 
to  pay  a perpetual  addition  to  their  rent — is.  for  every  fi 
given  by  him  for  such  work,  such  addition  to  commence  at 
the  end  of  three  years.  In  reference  to  this  charge  for  the 
repayment  of  public  money  advanced  by  the  State  on  ex- 
ceptional terms  for  the  purpose,  not,  I presume,  of  benefiting 
the  landlords,  but  of  aiding  an  impoverished  country  to  sur- 
mount dire  distress. 

“ Lord  Lansdowne  obtained  from  the  State  ^6,000, 
which  he  will  repay  by  a terminable  assessment  of  8s.  6d. 
. per  cent.  The  information  we  received  was  that  the  tenants 
who  had  received  part  of  these  moneys  for  drainage,  &c., 
have  to  pay  as  a permanent  increase  to  their  rent  per 
cent,  after  three  years,  and  that  they  had  signed  office- 
agreements  to  that  effect.  I hope  there  is  here  some  mis- 
apprehension. 

“ I am  not  surprised  that  only  a comparatively  small 
number  of  tenants  applied.  Everywhere  the  feeling  is  that 
the  rent  is  more  than  they  can  pay,  living  in  the  barest 
fashion,  and  they  shrink  from  anything  which  will  involve  a 
permanent  addition  to  that  serious  burden.  Nor  is  this 
wonderful,  when  it  is  recollected  that  if  overtaken  by  mis- 
fortune, and  so  unable  to  pay  rent,  they  may  be  ejected 
without  one  penny  of  compensation,  or,  if  they  refused  to 
pay  an  increased  rent,  be  turned  out  at  the  will  of  the  land- 
lord with  only  the,  as  they  conceive,  inadequate  protection 
of  the  Act  of  1870. 

Very  general  complaints  exist  as  to  the  charges  made  by 


The  Irish  Land  Agent. 


303 


the  estate  management  for  lime  supplied  to  the  tenants, 
which  for  the  wet  and  boggy  land  on  the  Kenmare  estate 
is  ar  absolute  necessity.  The  only  substitute  for  it  is  fine 
sea  sand  and  seaweed,  and  these  are  not  effectual.  It  ap- 
pears that  Lord  Lansdowne  some  years  ago  erected  a large 
lime-kiln  in  the  town  of  Kenmare  for  the  purpose  of  supply- 
ing the  tenants,  and  that  from  that  time  forward  they  were 
obliged  to  take  the  lime  from  him.  I understand  that  Lord 
Lansdowne  does  not  admit  having  prohibited  the  tenants 
using  their  own  kilns,  but  undoubtedly  the  impression  that  he 
did  so  prevails  in  Kenmare.  One  would  have  thought,  indeed, 
that  lime  so  produced  on  a large  scale  would  not  only  be 
better  burned,  but  cheaper,  and  thus  a benefit  to  the  tenants. 
They  do  not  seem  to  think  so.  These  are  the  facts  as 
stated  to  me.  From  the  date  of  the  erection  of  Lord 
Lansdowne’s  limekiln  in  Kenmare,  he  continued  until  this 
year  to  supply  his  tenants  with  lime  at  rates  varying  from  is. 
to  is.  3d.  per  barrel.  Even  at  these  rates  the  sale  of  the  lime 
ought  to  have  yielded  a profit.  Mr.  Samuel  M.  Hussey, 
Lord  Kenmare’s  agent  (a  gentleman  of  great  ability  as  well 
as  great  experience),  told  me  that  at  Killarney  Lord  Kenmare 
expected  to  be  able  to  supply  lime  to  his  tenants  without 
loss  to  himself  at  is.  3d.  per  barrel,  and  that  owing  to  the 
facility  at  Kenmare  for  water  carriage  of  culm,  or  slack  coal, 
the  lime  ought  to  be  burned  at  a considerably  lower  price 
there  than  at  Killarney.  In  the  spring  of  the  present  yeai 
(when,  you  will  remember,  the  distress  was  at  its  height)  the 
tenants  were  informed  by  the  agent  that  if  they  required 
lime  they  would  get  it  on  signing  the  following  ageement,  a 
printed  copy  of  which  is  in  my  possession : 

“ ‘ I hereby  agree  with  the  Marquis  of  Lansdowne 

to  pay  annually  after  two  years  one  penny  per  barrel,  as  an 
addition  to  my  rent,  for  each  and  every  barrel  of  lime  that  I 


3°4  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 

take.  And  I hereby  acknowledge  having  taken  from  the 
said  Marquis  barrels  of  lime. 

‘(Signed)  , 

* Witness 

‘ Dated  . 

“ Simultaneously  with  the  publication  of  this  agreement 
the  cash  price  of  lime  was  raised  by  the  agent  to  2s.  6d.  a 
barrel.  This  last  statement,  strongly  vouched  to  me,  I fail 
to  understand.  It  seems  remarkable.  I ought  to  add  Lord 
Lansdowne’s  is  the  only  public  limekiln  for  miles  around 
Kenmare.  When  we  consider  that  land  such  as  that  on  the 
Kenmare  estate  requires  lime  every  seven  years,  and  as 
much  as  sixty  barrels  to  the  acre,  if  properly  treated,  it  does 
not  seem  very  surprising  that  the  tenants  should  look  upon 
the  above  agreement,  as  they  unquestionably  do,  with  sus- 
picion as  an  ingenious  device  for  raising  their  rent.” 

The  Standard  special  correspondent,  though 
he  obviously  holds  a brief  for  the  Lansdowne 
estate  management,  says  : — 

“ Mr.  J.  T.  Trench,  the  agent  of  this  estate,  with  whom 
I had  an  interview  to  day,  admitted  the  truth  of  several  of 

these  charges In  his  remarks  to  me  he  took 

special  credit  for  the  firmness  with  which  he  manages  the 
estate.  If  the  tenant  does  not  pay  within  a short  time  after 
the  rent  has  fallen  due  he  issues  what  is  called  a ‘ Dublin 
eviction.’  This  is  a peremptory  mode  of  proceeding,  which, 
besides  being  more  rapid  than  the  ordinary  process  of  law, 
entails  an  expense  of  30s.  on  the  unfortunate  tenant.  I 
have  heard  of  a case  in  which  this  proceeding  seemed  to 
work  peculiar  hardship.  A tenant  named  John  Wren  owed 


Irish  Land  Agents. 


305 


rent  amounting  to  the  sum  of  jQ 2 11s.,  but  although  prof- 
fered before  service  of  the  writ  it  was  refused  unless  A1  IOS* 
costs  were  paid  in  addition  ” 

On  this  subject  Mr.  Russell  says  : — 

“ Bitter  complaint  was  made  that  even  in  cases  within  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  county  courts  writs  of  ejectment  are 
issued  from  the  superior  courts — what  the  tenants  call 
‘ Dublin  writs.’  These  not  alone  necessitate  the  employ- 
ment of  a Dublin  solicitor,  either  directly  or  through  some 
local  solicitor,  but  suggests  to  the  minds  of  the  tenants  a 
fearful  unknown  field  of  expensive  litigation.  Even  the 
initial  costs  often  are,  in  proportion  to  the  rent  demanded, 
enormous,  but  yet  the  screw  is  so  powerful  that  the  effort 
will  be  made  to  pay,  even  if  the  payer  is  to  denude  his  farm 
of  the  greater  part  of  his  stock,  and  himself  of  the  means 
of  turning  his  holding  to  account.  I find  that  from  Sept. 
1st,  1879,  t0  Sept.  1st,  1880,  sixty  superior  court  writs  of 
summons  in  ejectment,  exclusive  of  Quarter  Sessions  pro- 
cesses, were  issued.  Of  these  forty  were  issued  about 
September,  1879,  and  twenty  were  issued  in  May  of  the 
present  year.  I have  the  list  before  me.  The  former  com- 
prised rent  due  up  to  May  1st  (but  by  the  custom  of  the 
office  collected  in  July),  and  the  latter  twenty  comprised 
rent  up  to  May  1st,  1880.  Excepting  one  case  the  greatest 
amount  of  rent  due  was  two  years’  rent,  or  excluding  the 
stale  or  fictitious  outlying  year,  one  year’s  rent.  In  the 
great  majority  of  instances  three  half  years’  rent  only  were 
due,  or,  excluding  the  fictitious  year,  one  half  year’s  rent 
was  due.” 

Further  he  adds  : — 

“ While,  however,  the  same  feeling  in  reference  to  the 

U 


3°  6 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


agency  of  the  estate  seems  to  exist  here,  I was  somewhat 
surprised  to  find  that  a freer  tone  of  criticism  and  a more 
independent  attitude  was  assumed  by  the  tenants  than  in 
the  Kenmare  neighbourhood.  There  they  seemed  literally 
afraid  to  call  their  souls  their  own.  It  is  no  exaggeration 
to  say  they  spoke  with  bated  breath,  as  if  afraid  agent  or 
bailiff  might  hear  them.  Here  they  spoke  out  their  com- 
plaints with  greater  freedom  and  boldness.  The  greater 
distance  from  the  agent’s  eye  perhaps  accounted  for  the 
difference.  Lord  Lansdowne  was  unknown  to  them.  The 
few  who  had  ever  seen  him  had  done  so  upon  the  occasion 
of  his  attaining  his  majority.  Mr.  Trench  had  only  been 
there  once  in  the  last  five  years,  and  then  his  visit  had  been 
short.  Neither  landlord  nor  agent  had  visited  them  in  the 
time  of  their  distress,  although  Canon  Brosnan,  the  parish 
priest  of  Cahirciveen,  had  given  timely  written  warning  to 
Lord  Lansdowne  that  the  condition  of  his  Cahirciveen 
tenantry  was  likely  to  be  one  of  great  suffering  and  priva- 
tion. Practically,  the  control  of  this  part  of  the  estate  is  in 
the  hands  of  bailiffs,  of  whom  the  principal  one  lives  at 
Waterville.  I was  unable  to  find  that  any  considerable 
money  had  been  laid  out  by  the  landlord,  and  where  it  had 
been  is.  in  the  pound  had  been  added  to  the  rent  as  a per- 
manent increase.” 

With  regard  to  Kenmare,  I can  only  say  that 
my  own  experience  confirms  the  above.  1 shall 
never  forget  the  abject  terror  shown  by  a tenant 
of  Lord  Lansdowne’s  who  came  to  tell  me  of 
his  grievances,  and  who,  I begged,  would  write 
the  particulars  for  me.  All  this  is  attributed 
to  the  agent  system  of  government  here. 


Irish  Land  Agents, 


3°7 


I cannot  but  add.  in  justice  to  both  the 
Marquis  of  Lansdowne  and  Mr.  Trench,  that 
there  seems  to  be  an  extraordinary  amount  of 
duplicity  in  this  district,  and  I cannot  attribute 
it  altogether  to  terrorism.  I believe  the  re- 
moteness of  the  locality  and  the  mode  of 
government  have  produced  a race  apart.  I have 
heard  also  that  the  Marquis  of  Lansdowne  has 
exerted  himself  on  different  occasions  to  benefit 
the  sons  of  his  tenants  by  obtaining  situations 
for  them  in  the  Civil  Service,  &c.  For  this  I 
heard  he  received  not  only  scant  thanks  but 
ingratitude.  It  is  certainly,  as  I know  per- 
sonally, one  of  the  characteristics  of  this  place 
to  take  everything  and  to  refuse  even  the  return 
of  common  gratitude. 

Now,  I would  ask  the  honest  English  trader 
what  he  thinks  of  all  this  ? How  can  the  Irish 
peasant  be  prosperous,  when  advantage  is  taken 
of  him  at  every  possible  moment  to  increase  his 
rent,  and,  even  in  a year  of  famine,  to  add  to 
his  burdens  ? How  can  he  be  attached  to  a 
landlord  who  does,  or  to  a Government  which 
permits,  the  continuance  of  such  injustice — 
north,  south,  east,  or  west,  it  is  still  the  same. 
We  have  shown  what  is  done  on  other  estates 
in  Kerry.  In  Cork,  we  have  shown  how  Lord 
Cork’s  tenants  are  deprived  of  the  benefit  of 


308  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

English  law,  and  from  an  old  authority  we  give 
an  account  of  the  state  of  Gweedore  and  Meena- 
claddy  : — ■ 

“ The  ‘ New  Cuts  ’ being  taken  from  the  bog  or  mountain- 
land  over  which  the  old  tenants  have  been  accustomed  to 
graze  their  flocks,  a strong  objection  is  felt  to  the  practice, 
which  diminishes  their  rights  whilst  adding  a little  to  the 
rental  of  the  estates.  In  this  instance  it  will  be  seen  that 
one  fifth  (88  acres)  of  the  mountain  land  has  thus  been  gra- 
dually taken  from  the  village  rights.  The  extraordinary 
diminution  in  the  amount  of  stock  held  cannot  fairly  be 
attributed  to  this  cause ; but,  whilst  having  some  effect, 
must  have  arisen  from  losses  in  the  wet  season,  and  the 
gradual  reduction  in  the  stocks  caused  by  sales  to  pay  debts, 
purchase  food,  &c.,  in  the  three  past  years.  Both  the  large 
amount  of  stock  stated  to  have  been  held  in  past  good  years 
and  the  very  great  diminution  must,  I think,  be  exceptional. 
My  informant,  who  obtained  these  returns  for  me,  says : — 

“ ‘It  is  a very  startling  document,  in  my  mind.  The 
people  have  been  wonderfully  pulled  down  in  circumstances 
in  the  lapse  of  a few  years.  Some  years  ago  the  inhabitants 
of  Gweedore  generally,  as  well  as  those  of  Meenacladdy, 
enjoyed  very  extensive  rights  of  grazing  on  the  adjoining 
mountains  and  moorlands.  This  right  or  privilege  begat  a 
remarkable  thrift  in  the  way  of  providing  stock.  The  young 
folks  who  had  been  at  hire,  and  the  men  who  had  gone  to 
England  or  elsewhere,  put  their  earnings  to  buy  sheep  or 
cattle.  The  yearly  increase  in  the  stock,  the  profits  from 
wool  and  its  manufacture,  and  the  profits  from  buying  young 
cattle,  grazing  them  for  a season  or  two,  and  then  disposing 
of  them  at  a considerable  advantage,  constituted  the  happi- 
ness and  prosperity  of  those  simple  peasant  people.  The 


309 


Irish  Land  Agents . 

land  was  never  remarkably  fruitful,  and  the  arable  possessions 
of  the  people  were  never  sufficient  to  give  them  a subsistence. 
These  rights  of  grazing  have  been  gradually  lessened  or 
taken  from  them  by  the  landlords.  ‘ New  Cuts  * have  been 
made,  and  the  tenants  for  them  obtained,  against  the 
counsel  of  all  who  had  the  interest  of  the  people  at  heart, 
and  the  people  have  been  gradually  compressed  into  very 
small  limits,  and  thus  they  have  fallen  from  a state  of  com- 
parative comfort  to  a state  of  abject  poverty.  This  is  true 
of  every  part  of  the  whole  territory  of  Gweedore,  as  well  as 
of  Meenacladdy,  and  I take  it  to  explain  the  otherwise,  to 
me,  inexplicable  document  I enclose.” 

Everywhere,  it  is  taking  from  the  hard-work- 
ing, patient  slave.  Nowhere,  even  in  famine, 
was  help  given  to  him  by  those  who  had  so  long 
lived  in  luxury  on  his  sweat  and  toil. 

One  of  my  earliest  recollections  was  hearing 
an  aged  relative  describe  the  magnificent  scene 
which  she  witnessed  from  the  peeresses’  gallery 
in  the  House  of  Lords,  at  the  trial  of  Warren 
Hastings. 

She  told  me  again  and  again — for  I took  no 
ordinary  pleasure  in  her  tales  of  “ old  times  ” — 
how  each  peer,  as  he  gave  his  verdict,  rose  in 
his  place,  and,  as  he  did  so,  having  placed  his 
hand  upon  his  heart,  exclaimed,  “ Guilty  (or 
not  guilty)  on  my  honour  ! ” 

I fear  if  the  truth  concerning  the  management 
of  Irish  estates  was  known  to  the  House  of 


310  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated \ 

Lords,  and  if  it  was  called  upon  for  a verdict 
that  “ guilty , on  my  honour would  be  the 
response.  Would  it  not  be  better  if  these 
gentlemen  would  begin  by  admitting  themselves 
guilty,  and  try  to  remedy  the  ills  caused  by 
their  misgovernment,  instead  of  calling  out  for 
coercion  laws  for  their  unhappy  subjects  ? 

The  Freemans  Journal  says  : — 

“ If  Parliament  assembled  to-morrow  and  suspended  the 
Habeas  Corpus  Act,  every  tenant  in  the  districts,  where 
personal  liberty  was  suspended,  would  be  at  the  mercy, 
night  and  day,  of  the  magistrate,  who  would  probably  be  also 
his  landlord.” 

And,  we  may  add,  land  agent.  The  absolute 
despotic  power  which  the  Irish  land  agent 
possesses  in  Ireland  is  not  even  imagined  in 
England.  Not  only  is  he  lord  of  their  lives, 
as  far  as  deciding  on  what  they  shall  live, 
but  he  is  also  lord  of  their  liberty.  The 
land  agent  is,  with  rare  exceptions,  the  magis- 
trate and  the  chairman  of  the  board  of  guar- 
dians. His  brother  magistrates  are  too  often 
selected  because  they  are  in  some  way  or  for 
some  reason  pliable  to  his  influence.  At  the 
board  of  guardians  he  reigns  supreme.  I have 
heard,  on  what  I believe  to  be  good  authority, 
that  chairmen  of  boards  of  guardians  take  their 
seats  with  their  resolutions  in  their  pockets, 


Irish  Land  Agents.  31 1 

read  them  out,  and  with  contemptuous  indiffe- 
rence demand,  rather  than  ask,  the  assent  of 
the  Board.  By  a little  adroit  management — 
and  a land  agent  is  nothing  if  he  is  not  adroit — 
the  Poor  Law  Guardians  are  selected  from 
names  specially  to  the  Chairman’s  liking. 
Either  by  fear,  or  by  some  judicious  attention 
or  solid  advantage,  he  can  manage  so  that  there 
will  be  no  opposition. 

And  the  poor  know  all  this  too  well,  and  are 
made  to  feel  it  all  too  keenly.  Most  assuredly, 
no  land  agent  should  ever  be  allowed  a seat  on 
the  bench,  or  at  the  Board  of  Guardians. 
What ! are  men  whose  business  in  life  is  to  get 
all  they  possibly  can  out  of  their  dependents, 
who  even,  perhaps,  boast  of  their  tyranny,  to 
be  allowed  to  sit  in  judgment  on  those  men 
afterwards  ? 

How  this  works,  let  the  following  examples 
suffice  to  show. 

We  take  the  following  from  the  Cork 
Examiner , November,  1880: — 

“ A few  days  ago  we  had  occasion  to  complain  of  the 
manner  in  which  compensation  is  granted  for  so-called 
malicious  injuries.  The  proceedings  at  two  of  the  Road 
Sessions  in  the  West  Riding,  within  the  present  week,  afford 
a very  apt  illustration  of  the  abuses  to  which  we  desired  to 
call  attention.  The  applications  at  Bantry  and  Ballydehob 
were  not  numerous,  and  the  amounts  claimed  were  small, 


312  The  Case  oj  I * eland  stated. 

but  the  spirit  in  which  they  were  disposed  of  by  a section  of 
the  Bench  was  remarkable.  The  law  provides  that  where 
the  destruction  of  property  is  shown  to  be  wanton  or 
malicious,  the  owner  is  to  receive  compensation  for  his  loss, 
according  to  the  value  of  the  property.  The  Sessions  have 
no  authority  to  add  anything  to  the  award  for  the  purpose  of 
converting  it  into  a fine  upon  the  locality,  and  punishing  the 
inhabitants  for  constructive  participation  in  the  guilt  of  the 
incendiary.  It  is  a mere  question  of  compensation,  and 
nothing  more.  Let  us  see  how  the  law  has  been  adminis- 
tered by  the  western  benches.  We  shall  take  the  Bantry 
Sessions  first.  Mr.  Timothy  Regan  Harrington  came  for- 
ward to  complain  that  his  rick  of  hay,  containing  ten  tons, 
had  been  maliciously  burned.  He  gave,  so  far  as  we  can 
discern,  no  evidence  that  the  destruction  was  malicious,  save 
his  own  surmise.  But  the  Bench  were  not  in  a critical  mood. 
Mr.  Harrington  was  granted  immediately  the  sum  of  ^40. 
We  may  assume  that  when  Mr.  Harrington  estimated  the 
contents  of  the  rick  at  ten  tons,  he  did  not  understate  the 
quantity,  and  he  is  certainly  to  be  esteemed  a fortunate  man 
who  can  make  a ton  by  his  hay  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Bantry.  Dr.  Armstrong  was  remunerated  on  the  same 
liberal  scale  for  the  loss  of  five  tons  of  hay.  The  peculiarity 
of  his  case  was,  that  he  frankly  admitted  his  inability  to 
prove  that  the  burning  was  malicious — as,  he  said,  ‘ he  was 
unable  to  attach  suspicion  to  any  one.’  But  that  slight 
hiatus  in  his  proofs  did  not  in  the  least  affect  the  action  of 
the  Bench.  The  Chairman,  Mr.  j.  W.  Payne,  had,  in  a 
previous  case,  declared  that  he  would  not  be  a bit  sorry  to 
put  hundreds  of  pounds  upon  the  people  of  the  district  in 
which  the  fire  had  occurred,  ‘ to  punish  them.’  Is  this  the 
spirit  in  which  the  law  should  be  administered  ? The  moral 
of  the  proceedings  appears  to  be  that  the  best  thing  that  can 
haDDen  to  a man  with  a rick  of  hay,  or  other  combustible 


Irish  Land  Agents. 


3*3 


commodity,  on  his  hands  is,  that  some  one  should  come  and 
bum  it — rather  a dangerous  idea  to  get  abroad.” 

So  far  for  Bantry.  The  writer  of  the  article 
then  turns  to  Ballydehob,  where  a Mr.  Holland 
applied  for  compensation  : — 

“ So  far  as  we  can  see,  from  the  reports  of  the  proceedings, 
no  reliable  evidence  of  the  value  of  the  houses  was  given  on 
the  part  of  the  applicant,  and  three  respectable  witnesses> 
one  of  them  the  under-agent  of  the  estate,  produced  for  the 
ratepayers,  proved  that  the  premises  had  been  for  a consider, 
able  time  mere  ruins,  and  were  not  worth  more  than  Ll  or 
£%  at  the  utmost.  In  the  face  of  this  evidence,  four  magis- 
trates— Messrs.  Swanton,  Fleming,  O’Grady,  and  the  chair 
man — and  one  cess-payer,  Mr.  J.  Notter,  voted  forgiving  the 
applicant  — just  four  times  what  the  houses  had  been 

sworn  to  be  worth.  During  the  proceedings  a voice  called 
out,  ‘The  magistrates  should  consider  the  poor  people/ 
What  was  the  response?  The  chairman  replied,  ‘The  poor 
people  of  the  country  must  behave  themselves.  If  not,  I 
hope  they  will  get  powder  and  ball  before  long.’  Verily,  a 
discreet  and  humane  sentiment  on  the  part  of  a member  of 
the  Bench.” 

Are  landlords  and  land  agents  in  Ireland  to  be 
utterly  ii  responsible  ? Are  they  to  be  allowed 
to  take  into  their  own  hands , not  only  whatever 
alterations  they  may  please  to  make  in  laws 
made  in  England  for  Ireland,  but  are  they  also 
to  be  allowed  to  administer  “justice”  from  the 
Bench  at  their  own  sweet  will  and  pleasure  ? Is 


314  J he  of  Ireland  stated . 

it  any  wonder  that  landlords  are  not  loved,  and 
that  some  land  agents  find  adding  as  much 
terrorism  as  possible  to  their  mode  of  govern- 
ing the  people  the  simplest  and  easiest  way 
of  carrying  out  this  system  of  injustice. 

Their  only  fear  is  the  fear  of  public  opinion. 
As  far  as  that  goes,  in  Ireland  they  are  perfectly 
safe.  They  are  masters  of  the  situation.  Com- 
plaints would  be  made  in  the  county  papers, 
and  legal  or  other  injustice  may  be  ex- 
posed. What  does  it  matter  ? It  is  not  known 
in  England,  where,  if  even  known  and  believed, 
it  would  be  denounced.  Hence  it  is  that  the 
action  of  the  Land  League  has  caused  such 
absolute  terror.  Irish  affairs  are  getting  written 
about  in  the  English  papers.  The  truth  is 
being  told,  and  some  of  it,  at  least,  is  beginning 
to  be  believed.  The  day  is  dawning  when 
Ireland  will  no  longer  be  deprived  of  the  benefit 
of  English  law,  and  when  Irish  landlords  will 
be  obliged  to  submit  to  it.  Pity  for  them,  they 
have  not  the  wisdom  to  anticipate  that  day 
with  a good  grace. 

The  Times  says  : — 

“We  understand  that  Lord  Monck,  Lord  Powerscourt, 
and  others,  are  also  inclined  to  approve  some  modification 
of  the  scheme  known  as  ‘the  three  F’s  ’ — fixity  of  tenure 


Irish  Lanl  Agents.  315 

fair  rents,  and  free  sale — which  has  been  already  adopted 
by  some  leading  representatives  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church.” 

Happily,  there  are  some  landlords  in  Ireland 
who  are  willing  to  allow  justice  to  be  done ; 
and  it  is  well  worth  noting  that  in  every  such 
case  landlord  and  tenant  have  lived  on  peace- 
ful terms.  Nor  are  land  agents  the  only 
persons  who  press  hardly  on  the  people.  I am 
far  from  wishing  to  assert  that  justice  is  unfairly 
administered  on  the  whole  in  Ireland ; but,  cer- 
tainly, the  poorer  classes  often  fare  hardly  in 
this  matter,  and  are  treated  sometimes  with 
rough  and  scant  justice  even  by  County-court 
judges.  A gentleman  who  associates  with  the 
landlord  or  land  agent,  finds  it  hard  to  decide 
against  him  ; above  all,  if  the  case  has  reference 
to  land,  wherein  the  lord  of  the  soil  seems  to 
think  he  has  a right  to  all,  and  the  tenant  has  a 
right  only  to  exist  if  he  can.  This  has  happily 
been  noticed  of  late  in  England.  The  Pall 
Mall  Gazette  says  : — 

*“  County-court  judges  in  Ireland  have  particularly  dJicate 
duties  to  discharge,  and  their  absolute  impartiality  is  at  the 
present  moment  more  than  ever  imperative.  A case  reported 
from  an  Irish  county  court  this  morning,  in  which  a Protes- 
tant landlord  was  prosecuted  for  not  giving  notice  of  an 
ejectment  to  the  relieving-officer  of  the  district,  hardly  seems 
to  have  been  dealt  with  in  the  true  judicial  spirit.  The  case 


3 1 6 The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

was  the  first  of  its  kind,  and  the  defendant,  an  archdeacon 
as  well  as  a landlord,  appears  to  have  had  no  defence,  and 
was  willing  to  pay  the  penalty.  The  Local  Government 
Board,  however,  refused  to  allow  the  prosecution  to  be  with- 
drawn ; and  when  the  case  came  on  for  trial  the  judge,  hold- 
ing that  the  neglect,  if  any,  was  that  of  the  agent  and  not 
the  landlord,  condemned  the  proceedings  as  vindictive,  and, 
regretting  that  he  was  obliged  to  inflict  a penalty  by  law,  he 
refused  to  give  any  costs.  It  does  not  seem  to  be  within 
the  province  of  a judge  to  inquire  into  the  motives  of  a pro- 
secution for  an  offence  of  which  the  law  has  marked  the 
exceptional  gravity  by  fixing  a minimum  penalty.  If  the 
vindictiveness  is  explained  by  the  fact  mentioned  at  the 
meeting  of  the  Land  League  yesterday  that  Archdeacon 
Bland  had  evicted  thirty-eight  of  his  tenants,  we  are  afraid 
that  the  action  of  the  judge  will  be  construed  as  indicating 
sympathy  with  the  side  of  the  landlords  in  the  great  agrarian 
dispute.  Let  the  administration  of  the  lawbe  swift  and 
stern  by  all  means ; but,  first  of  all,  let  it  be  strictly  im- 
partial.” 

Certainly,  those  who  are  clamouring  so  loudly 
for  what  they  call  justice,  should  be  willing  to 
allow  a share  of  it  to  others.  There  are  land- 
lords who  have  not  troubles  with  their  tenants, 
because  they  have  not  treated  them  unjustly. 

Mr.  Leoni  Levi,  writing  to  the  HmeSy 
August  31,  1880,  has  the  following  platitude 
about  Ireland  : — 

“ The  great  wants  of  Ireland  are,  I apprehend,  capital, 
confidence,  and  industry.  Most  unfortunately,  at  the  pre- 


Irish  Land  Agents, 


3T7 


sent  moment  both  landowners  and  tenants  are  very  poor. 
The  landowners,  or  a great  portion  of  them,  harassed  by 
debt  and  mortgages,  will  do  and  can  do  nothing  to  improve 
the  land.  The  tenants,  generally  with  large  families  and 
destitute  of  means,  have  as  little  power  to  do  much  for  it 
Little  or  nothing,  therefore,  is  attempted  ; and  what  is  done 
is  principally  accomplished  either  by  loans  from  the  Board 
of  Works  or  with  money  from  money-lenders  at  high  rates 
of  interest.  The  total  amount  of  farmers’  capital  in  Ireland 
must,  I fear,  be  very  small,  and  the  results  are  apparent  in 
the  comparative  poverty  of  the  land  and  the  scantiness  of  its 
produce. 

“ But  a greater  want  is  confidence.  How  can  capital  flow 
into  the  country  so  long  as  the  people  are  for  ever  wrangling 
on  social  grievances  and  indulging  political  discontent? 
Perfect  safety  of  person  and  property  and  respect  for  legal 
rights  are  the  first  conditions  of  social  progress.  Want  of 
confidence  affects  the  cultivation  of  land  in  every  way.  The 
landowner  has  no  confidence  in  the  tenant,  and  the  tenant 
has  no  confidence  in  the  landowner,  and  so  the  land  suffers. 
Unfortunately,  there  are  too  many  reasons  for  this  want  of 
mutual  confidence.” 

This  is  just  the  usual  and  most  fallacious  style 
of  English  reasoning.  First  it  is  admitted  that 
there  is  no  capital  in  Ireland,  then  we  are  told 
that  we  indulge  political  discontent,  and  that 
this  is  the  cause  why  capital  does  not  come  to 
us  from  some  unknown  and  mysterious  source. 
How  can  a people  refrain  from  political  discon- 
tent when  they  have  such  serious  political  grie- 
vances ? and  how  can  there  be  “ confidence” 


3 1 8 The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

when  the  one  object  of  the  “ office”  is  to  deprive 
the  people  of  every  possible  means  of  accumu- 
lating capital  ? And  yet  the  men  who  do  this 
are  to  judge  the  poor  on  the  bench,  and  to  be 
their  so-called  guardians  at  the  Poor  Law  Board, 
Guardians  of  the  poor ! One  day  they  will 
have  been  shown  to  have  been  rather  the  task- 
masters of  the  poor. 

But  you  will  say  I exaggerate  ; again  let  me 
offer  you  facts.  Here  is  from  an  English 
authority  a statement  of  how  capital  is  kept  out 
of  Ireland  ; for  unless  the  poor  farmer  is  allowed 
to  make  capital,  how  can  there  be  capital.  The 
Daily  Telegraph  correspondent,  writing  from 
Claremorris,  says 

“ But  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  Lord  Sligo’s  tenants 
have  no  grievance  against  the  1 office,’  at  which  impersonal 
thing  they  hurl  bitter  words.  It  was  the  ‘ office’  that  took 
from  them  years  ago  the  privilege  of  pasturing  their  cattle 
upon  the  adjacent  hills.  It  was  the  ‘ office’  which  laid  a 
tax  of  25  per  cent,  upon  the  proceeds  of  the  industry  in 
making  kelp.  It  was  the  1 office’  which  insisted  that,  while 
drift  seaweed  might  be  freely  gathered,  weed  growing  on 
the  shore  may  not  be  had  without  payment.  It  was  the 
‘ office’  which  demanded  half  a crown  per  homestead  for 
cutting  turf,  on  pretence  of  making  roads  to  the  bogs,  and 
left  the  roads  unmade.  And  it  was  the  1 office’  which,  four 
or  five  years  ago,  raised  the  rents  25  per  cent.,  established 
a new  tenancy,  and  deprived  the  holders  of  the  right  to 
claim  compensation  under  the  Land  Act  for  their  improve- 


Irish  Land  Agents . 319 

ments.  The  memory  of  these  things  is  bitter,  yet  those 
who  suffer  by  them  will  not  say  a word  against  Lord  Sligo. 
Their  expression  concerning  him  is,  ‘ Not  a bad  man  but 
they  use  very  different  language  when  speaking  of  the 
* office’  and  its  occupants.” 

Is  it  any  wonder  then  the  very  name  of  a land 
agent  is  a name  of  dread,  and  that  the  office, 
wherever  he  issues  his  “ writs,”  a word  of  many 
meanings,  is  spoken  of  with  abject  horror  ? 

It  is  from  these  offices  that  orders  issue  forth 
for  the  raising  of  rent  ; it  is  from  these  that  the 
will  and  pleasure  of  the  land  agent  is  made 
known  to  a people  who  know  the  u peremptory” 
methods  that  will  be  used  to  insure  obedience. 

It  is  in  these  offices  that  the  poor  tenants,  if 
they  dare  come  with  a complaint,  are  brow- 
beaten and  terrified.  An  English  friend,  who 
spent  some  little  time  in  Ireland  not  long  since, 
told  me  that  he  passed  some  days  in  a rent 
office,  I believe  more  for  amusement  than  any 
other  purpose.  There  are  generally  in  those 
offices  a number  of  young  men  who  are  train- 
ing for  future  occupations  as  land  agents,  a most 
lucrative  post.  He  said  on  one  occasion  a re- 
spectable old  woman  came  into  the  office  to  ask 
some  question,  and  the  young  gentleman,  per- 
haps to  show  before  this  Englishman  how  they 
treated  the  “ mere  Irish,”  yelled  and  shouted 


320  The  Ca.se  of  Ireland  stated. 

at  her  until  he  was  almost  deafened.  He  im- 
plored them  to  speak  quietly  to  the  woman,  or 
at  least  to  hear  what  she  wanted,  but  it  was 
useless,  and  the  poor  creature  went  away  un- 
heard. 

In  a letter  to  the  Freemans  Journal  from  the 
Rev.  YV.  Dempsey,  P.P.,  Camlough,  the  way  in 
which  “addresses’’  are  got  up  is  significantly 
illustrated.  He  says  : — 

“ I am  a tenant  on  the  Marquis  of  Londonderry’s  estate, 
and  I never  saw  this  address  to  him  and  the  Duke  of 
Marlborough  [two  trustees  of  the  Vane-Tempest  estate] 
until  I read  it  yesterday  in  your  paper,  nor  heard  of  it 
until  it  had  been  despatched  ; and  I am  sure  that  the  great 
majority  of  the  tenantry  have  the  same  story  to  tell.  The 
plain  truth  of  the  matter  is  this — A committee  was  formed 
for  the  ostensible  purpose  of  raising  funds  for  the  relief  of 
the  sufferers  by  the  late  explosion  at  the  Marquis  of  Lon- 
donderry’s colliery  at  Seaham.  I subscribed,  as  did  all,  I 
think,  or  nearly  all,  the  tenantry  on  the  estate.  We  were 
asked  to  subscribe  on  the  plea  of  charity ; but  we  had  no 
idea  that  we  were  in  reality  subscribing  to  a sort  of  testi- 
monial to  the  Marquis  of  Londonderry,  and  much  less  that 
our  subscriptions  would  be  made  to  serve  a political  purpose 
by  supplying  an  argument  against  the  present  land  agitation. 
Whatever  may  be  said  as  to  the  propriety  of  making  such  a 
collection  at  all  under  circumstances  the  most  adverse, 
I believe  the  majority  of  the  tenants  would  say  that  the  ad- 
dress was  quite  uncalled  for,  and  that  it  by  no  means  repre- 
sents accurately  and  fairly  either  the  real  state  of  things  on 
the  Vane-Tempest  estate  or  their  own  views  with  regard  to 
the  matters  with  which  it  deals.” 


Irish  Latid  Agents.  321 

Again  here  is  another  specimen  of  the  man- 
ner in  which  land  agents  treat  their  dependents. 
At  a meeting  at  Tipperary,  where  the  Rev.  P. 
O’Donnell,  C.C.,  took  the  chair,  a farmer  begged 
to  be  allowed  to  state  his  case.  He  held  63 
acres  of  poor  land,  for  which  he  paid  originally 
£61.  In  1859  the  rent  was  raised  to  £68.  In 
1865,  when  the  landlord  became  of  age,  the  rent 
was  raised  to  £80,  and  in  1875  to  while 

Griffith’s  valuation  was  only  £71.  On  asking 
an  abatement  of  some  kind  he  received  the 
following  letter  from  the  landlord  ; — 

“ 29 th  August , 1880. 

“ I suppose  you  won’t  pay.  If  I go  down  I will  show 
you  no  quarter.  Out  you  go.” 

“ 4 th  Sept.,  1880. 

“ I write  to  say  that  all  negociations  must  now  cease,  so 
help  me  Christ  Immanuel.” 

Again  I quote  an  English  authority,  the 
special  correspondent  of  the  Daily  News , as  to 
how  capital  is  “ driven  out  of  the  country.” 

“ The  idea  of  any  right  which  a landlord  was  bound  to 
respect  had  not  dawned  upon  them,  and  if  it  had,  prompt 
vengeance  would  have  descended  on  the  village  of  Hampden 
in  the  shape  of  a notice  to  quit ; and  he,  whose  conception 
of  the  world  was  limited  to  his  native  mountains,  would 
have  been  turned  out  upon  them  with  his  wife  and  children 
to  die.” 


V 


322  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

Another  evidence  of  the  style  in  which  the 
land  agents  rule  their  masters’  estates  : — 

“ The  first  act  of  the  new  management  was  to  ‘ sthripe  the 
land  on  ’urn,’  that  is,  to  mark  it  out  into  T5  holdings,  each 
in  one  ‘ sthripe  ’ or  block.  This  arrangement,  which  to  the 
ordinary  mind  hardly  appears  unreasonable,  was  considered 
oppressive  by  the  tenants,  who  submitted,  however,  as  was 
then  the  manner  of  their  kind.  They  had  still  the  moun- 
tain, and  could  graze  their  cow  or  two  or  their  half-dozen 
sheep  upon  it,  and  they  naturally  regarded  this  privilege  as 
the  most  valuable  part  of  their  holding,  inasmuch  as  it  paid 
their  rent,  clothed  them,  and  supplied  them  with  milk  to  eat 
with  their  potatoes. 

“ Satisfied  with  little,  they  rubbed  on  contentedly  enough, 
only  the  more  adventurous  spirits  going  to  England  for  the 
harvesting.  Then  came  serious  changes.  The  rent  of  the 
holdings  was  raised  to  fj,  and  the  mountain  was  taken 
away.  The  poor  people  protested  that  they  had  nothing  to 
feed  their  few  animals  upon  on  the  paltry  holdings,  of  which 
a couple  of  acres  might  be  available  for  tillage,  a couple 
more  for  grass,  and  the  remaining  two  or  three  good  for 
hardly  anything.  An  answer  was  given  to  them.  If  they 
must  have  the  mountain,  they  must  pay  for  it,  practically 
another  rise  in  the  rent.  To  this  they  agreed  perforce,  and 
even  to  the  extraordinary  condition  that  during  a month  or 
six  weeks  of  the  breeding  season  for  grouse,  they  should 
drive  their  tiny  flocks  or  herds  off  the  mountain  and  on  to 
their  holdings,  in  order  that  the  game  might  not  be  disturbed 
at  a critical  period.  I hear  that  for  the  last  year  rents  have 
fallen  into  arrear,  and  that  the  beasts  of  those  who  have  not 
paid  up  have  just  been  driven  off  the  mountain. 

u I have  cited  this  case  as  one  of  the  proofs  in  my  hands 


Irish  Land  Agents.  323 

that  the  country  is  not  over-populated,  as  has  been  so  fre- 
quently stated. 

“ The  people  who  in  their  little  way  were  graziers  and 
raisers  of  stock,  have  been  deprived  of  their  cattle  run,  and 
having  no  ground  to  raise  turnips  upon,  cannot  resort  to 
artificial  feeding.  What  was  originally  intended  to  serve  as 
a little  homestead  to  raise  food  on  for  themselves  is  all  they 
have  left,  and  it  is  now  said  that  they  are  crowded  together. 
It  would  be  more  correct  to  say  that  they  have  been  driven 
together  like  rats  in  the  corner  of  a pit.” 

Like  rats  in  a pit!  Here  is  an  English 
account  of  landlord  government  of  Ireland. 
And  yet  we  are  told  that  we  are  lazy  and  dirty 
and  discontented  and  full  of  “ sentimental  griev- 
ances. 

But  let  us  see  how  capital  is  kept  ont  of  Ireland 
by  the  very  persons  who  are  loudest  in  their 
denunciations,  and  who  are  always  writing 
letters  to  the  Times , with  hints  of  that  myste- 
rious capitalist  who  is  always  coming  (on  paper) 
but  who  never  comes  in  person. 

The  same  authority  says  : — 

“ I esteem  myself  fortunate  in  being  enabled  to  describe 
what  the  life  of  the  Connemara  peasant  is,  under  favourable 
circumstances.  His  abject  misery  in  years  of  famine  and 
persistent  rain,  when  crops  fail  and  peat  cannot  be  dried, 
may  be  left  to  the  imagination.  Potatoes  raised  from  the 
“ champion  ” seed,  introduced  during  the  distress  last  year, 
are,  if  not  plentiful,  yet  sufficient,  perhaps,  for  the  present, 
in  the  localities  to  which  a good  supply  of  seed  was  sent  ; 


324 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


but  I should  not  like  to  speculate  on  the  probable  condition 
of  affairs  in  March  next.  I have  also  spoken  of  such  a 
peasant  as  has  been  fortunate  enough  to  obtain  work  at  nine 
shillings  a week,  esteemed  a fair  rate  hereabouts.  But,  in 
truth,  there  is  very  little  work  to  be  had  ; for  the  curse  of 
absenteeism  sits  heavily  on  the  West.  Four  great  landed 
proprietors,  who  together  have  drawn,  for  several  years  past, 
about  Dl 0,000  from  their  estates  in  Mayo,  Galway,  and 
Clare,  have  not,  I am  assured,  ever  spent  ^10,000  a year  in 
this  country.  As  with  the  land  itself,  crop  after  crop  has 
been  gathered  and  no  fertilizer  has  been  put  in.  The  peasant 
is  now  aware  of  as  many  of  such  facts  as  apply  to  his  own 
locality,  and  this  knowledge,  coupled  with  hard  work  and 
hunger,  has  aroused  a discontent  not  to  be  easily  appeased. 

“ Thus  arises  a state  of  affairs  against  which  the  peasant, 
at  last,  shows  signs  of  revolt.  Physically  and  mentally 
neglected  for  centuries  by  his  masters,  he  has  found,  within 
the  last  fifty  years,  neglect  exchanged  for  extortion  and 
oppression.  To  prevent  the  sale  of  the  property,  the  owners 
or  trustees  must  pay  the  interest  on  the  incumbrances. 
Moreover,  they,  being  only  human,  think  themselves  entitled 
to  a modest  subsistence  out  of  the  proceeds  of  the  property. 
To  pay  the  interest  and  secure  this  “ margin  ” for  themselves 
there  is  only  one  way — to  wring  the  last  shilling  out  of  the 
wretched  tenants,  to  first  deprive  them  of  their  ancient  privi- 
leges, and  then  charge  them  extra  dues  for  exercising  them  ; 
or  to  let  every  available  inch  of  mountain  pasture  to  a cattle 
farmer,  whose  herds  take  very  good  care  that  the  cottier’s 
cow  does  not  get  “ the  run  of  the  mountain  ” at  their  master’s 
expense. 

The  correspondent  of  the  Daily  Telegraph 
says : — 

il  Smaller  land-owners  in  the  parish  are  either  unable  or 


Irish  Land  Agents . 


325 


unwilling  to  treat  their  tenants  with  the  leniency  shown  by 
the  Marquis,  and  on  the  property  of  one  or  two  of  these 
evictions  are  now  threatened.  Their  rents  seem  immode- 
rately high,  taking  the  Poor  Law  Valuation  as  a standard. 
John  Grady,  for  example,  occupies  land  valued  at  10s. 
and  pays  jQ 9 ; while  Tom  Ball  has  a still  smaller  holding, 
rated  at  30s.,  for  which  he  pays  L5  and  taxes.  It  is  mani- 
festly impossible  that  these  men  can  make  a living  off  poor 
land  so  heavily  burdened — land  brought  under  cultivation 
by  themselves  or  their  predecessors,  without  the  owner  stir- 
ring a finger  or  investing  sixpence  in  its  improvement.  The 
rent,  in  point  of  fact,  has  to  be  made  up  by  labour  in 
England,  and  it  is  just  this  state  of  things  which  should  be 
borne  in  mind  by  people  who  are  disposed  to  complain  of 
the  Irish  tenant’s  revolt.  His  life  is  often  one  of  slavery  for 
the  benefit  of  the  man  who  owns  the  soil  of  a country  where 
agriculture  is  the  only  industry.” 

Here  are  Connemara  and  Kerry  described  by 
English  writers;  and  yet,  English  people  wonder 
the  Irish  are  so  discontented  and  rebellious. 

But,  even  at  the  expense  of  possible  weariness 
to  the  reader,  let  me  call  attention  to  what 
Canon  Heany,  P.P.,  writes  about  Downpatrick: 

“The  desolating  system  that  has  been  pursued  and  carried 
out  in  past  times,  upheld  by  the  land  laws  of  the  country, 
has  at  length  forced  the  tenant  farmers  to  seek  temporary 
protection  under  a Land  League  organization,  rather  than 
be  exposed  to  the  risk  of  eviction  under  a capricious  or  a 
rack-renting  landlord.  If  there  be  anything  unnatural  or 
unhealthy  in  this  state  of  things,  let  those  be  responsible 
who  have  persistently  refused  to  recognise  the  just  claims  of 


326 


The  Case  of  Ireland  staled. 


the  tenant.  The  proprietor,  no  doubt,  has  rights  which 
must  be  respected  and  preserved.  Individual  property  is  in 
the  order  and  nature  of  things  established  by  God,  and  forms 
an  essential  element  of  human  society ; but  the  tenant,  too, 
has  his  rights,  derived  from  a source  equally  high  and  holy. 
The  labourer  is  worthy  of  his  hire.  Were  the  landlord  him- 
self to  farm  and  cultivate  his  estate,  and  were  the  tenant 
or  tenants  thereon  to  till  it,  in  the  capacity  or  condition  of 
labourers,  he  or  they  would  pot  be  deprived  of  the  fruit  of 
their  toil,  nor  doomed  to  starvation.  What  the  Indian 
planter  even  does  for  the  negro  should  be  done  for  the  free 
tenant  farmers  of  the  British  Empire.  Let  the  land  be  let  to 
the  tenantry  of  Ireland  for  a fair  and  equitable  rent,  with 
fixity  of  tenure,  and  every  facility  for  honest  purchase,  when 
the  occasion  arises.  Let  the  tenant-farmers  and  people 
press  and  insist  on  this,  and  let  them  not  be  deluded  by 
imaginary  or  impracticable  schemes,  which  would  tend  more 
to  impoverish  than  improve  the  condition  of  our  people.” 

Mr.  T.  D.  Sullivan,  M.P.,  at  the  Mullingar 
Meeting,  said  : — 

“ A priest  had  told  him  of  one  poor  man  dying  in  the 
Mullingar  Workhouse  who  had  once  a happy  home  and  a 
virtuous  family.  He  was  thrown  on  the  roadside,  not  for 
arrears  of  rent,  but  because  the  landlord  chose  to  clear  the 
farms.  The  misery  and  the  shame  of  what  he  had  been 
reduced  to  was  hard  enough  to  bear,  and  the  recollection  of 
the  happy  days  he  spent  at  home  he  could  have  forgotten, 
but  amongst  the  members  of  his  family  he  had  a daughtei, 
whom  he  left  in  that  wretched  abode.  His  daughter  became 
a wretch  and  she  was  lost.  The  poor  father  could  have  for- 
gotten everything  but  that,  and  in  his  dying  hours  he  could 
not  forget  the  author  of  his  wrongs — the  landlord  who  had 


Irish  Land  Agents.  327 

turned  him  and  his  children  out  of  their  land  (cries  of  ‘Shame, 
shame’).” 

Mr.  Thomas  Fenelon,  of  Ballyconnel,  writes 
to  the  Freeman  : — 

“Among  the  many  counts  in  the  indictment  which  the 
Government  have  brought  against  Mr.  Parnell  and  his  com- 
panions, is  one  for  calling  on  the  people  not  to  take  any  farm 
from  which  the  tenant  has  been  unjustly  evicted.  Now,  I 
wonder  what  would  Mr.  Gladstone  or  Mr.  Forster  say  if  every 
priest  and  bishop  in  Ireland  stated  that  they  felt  bound,  in  the 
interest  of  Christian  charity,  religion,  and  social  order,  to 
adopt  the  same  course  ? What  Irishman  can  be  ignorant  of 
the  evils  inflicted  on  the  tenantry  of  the  country  by  the  hunger 
and  thirst  hitherto  existing  for  land  ? I will  give  one  instance 
of  the  cases  that  came  within  my  own  knowledge,  and  which 
I could  count  by  the  score  since  the  general  election  of ’52. 
An  honest,  industrious  farmer,  with  his  wife  and  children, 
struggles  against  a rack-rent  by  the  constant  labour  of  him. 
self  and  family;  living  on  the  poorest  fare,  and  clad  in  the 
cheapest  and  coarsest  material,  he  is  able  to  keep  his  chin 
over  water  for  a time.  A bad  season  comes,  he  loses  a cow 
or  horse,  distemper  gets  among  his  pigs,  on  which  he  may 
largely  depend  for  rent;  fever  or  other  sickness  comes 
among  his  family.  Any  visitation  of  this  kind  is  a terrible 
blow  to  a man  staggering  under  a rack-rent.  The  rent-day 
comes  round,  he  is  not  able  to  meet  his  engagement ; the 
agent  or  landlord  may  not  regret  this  for  reasons  known  to 
themselves.  Another  gale  day  comes  on,  but  this  poor  man 
from  one  cause  or  other  is  still  sinking  under  the  load.  At 
last,  perhaps,  he  owes  two  or  three  half-years’  rent.  During 
all  this  time  some  neighbour  or  other  was  testing  his  plans 
through  the  machinery  of  bailiffs,  drivers,  and  agent.  The 


328  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated, 

work  is  now  ready  to  hand,  there  is  no  one  to  blame,  a visi- 
tation of  Providence  rendered  this  honest  man  unable  to  pay 
the  rent,-  the  landlord  or  agent  can  wash  his  hands  and  give 
the  place  to  the  land  shark,  who  will  clear  up  all  rent  due, 
and  perhaps  do  a little  more.  Thus  the  tenant  is  deprived 
of  his  home,  of  the  fruits  of  his  toil  and  outlay,  himself  and 
family  driven  to  the  poorhouse,  or  obliged  to  labour  in  the 
service  of  others,  because  another  man  was  watching,  base 
enough,  to  rob  them  of  their  rights.  The  Land  League 
says,  and  every  honest  man  must  endorse  the  saying,  ‘If 
there  were  no  receivers,  there  would  be  no  robberies.’  ” 

The  Rev.  M.  J.  Clarke,  C.C.,  of  Kilmore, 
Belmullet,  writes  on  the  same  day  and  date, 
November  5,  1880  : — 

“In  the  early  part  of  this  week  I was  called  to  the  town- 
land  of  Clogher,  situate  in  the  parish  of  Kilmore,  and  about 
ten  miles  from  Belmullet,  to  administer  the  last  rites  of  the 
Church  to  an  old  woman  whose  years,  I believe,  number  not 
less  than  eighty.  A few  days  previous  her  son-in-law,  a man 
named  Keane,  with  whom  she  lived,  together  with  his  wife 
and  a family  of  eight,  were  evicted  from  their  home  by  a 
landlord  of  the  middle-class  type  for  the  non-payment  of  an 
exorbitant  rent.  I say  exorbitant,  for  on  inquiry  I find  that 
the  Government  valuation  of  the  holding  is  ^3  10s.,  while 
the  actual  rent  is  ^8,  exclusive  of  rates  and  taxes,  which  the 
late  tenant,  contrary  to  stipulation,  had  been  obliged  to 
pay.” 

I omit  his  graphic  description  of  the  miser- 
able scene. 

He  continues  : — 

“ I inquired  for  the  old  woman  whom  I was  called  to 


Irish  Land  Agents . 


329 


attend,  and  was  conducted  by  one  of  the  bystanders  to  the 
spot  where  she  lay.  Towards  the  west  side  of  the  walls  of 
the  house,  and  adjoining  what  was  once  the  gable,  is  an 
enclosure  formed  by  the  articles  of  furniture,  which  have 
been  huddled  together  for  the  purpose  of  making  an  attempt 
at  something  like  a dwelling.  A few  sticks,  with  some  straw 
spread  over,  serve  the  purpose  of  a roof,  while  an  open  space 
is  left  on  the  side  of  the  structure  for  an  entrance.  The 
whole  enclosed  area  measures  about  14ft.  by  6ft.,  and  here, 
God  be  praised,  in  this  nineteenth  century  of  enlightenment 
and  progress,  in  the  midst  of  peace  and  plenty,  is  a poor, 
honest,  hard-working  serf,  with  his  family  of  little  ones, 
obliged  to  shelter  themselves  from  the  biting  blast  of  a cold 
November  night.  Shelter  from  their  neighbours  they  cannot 
obtain,  for  this  most  humane  of  landlords,  whose  tenants,  I 
am  happy  to  say,  are  few,  not  content  with  carrying  his  cruel 
designs  thus  far,  threatened  them  with  a similar  punishment 
should  they  take  this  poor  family  under  their  roof  even  for 
one  night. 

“ Here,  I say,  in  this  wretched  spot,  with  the  green  grass 
for  her  bed,  did  this  poor  old  woman  receive  at  my  hands 
the  last  rites  of  the  Church  ; and  here,  while  I write,  is  this 
destitute  family  obliged  to  live  for  want  of  a better  home.” 

Mr.  Lucas,  writing  to  the  Tablet , makes  some 
remarks  which  are  an  admirable  commentary  on 
the  above.  He  says  : — 

“ The  ‘ old  fashioned  notions  about  the  rights  of  pro- 
perty,’ to  which  he  lays  claim,  were,  I believe,  held  by  my 
brother  who  assisted  in  founding  the  Tenant  League,  in 
order  to  put  a stop  to  the  habitual  breach  of  those  rights  by 
the  landlords. 


330 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


“ In  this  view  it  was  not  tenants  who  refused  to  pay  rack- 
rents  who  were  dishonest,  but  the  landlords  who  enforced 
them. 

“ That  peculiar  truth  was  new  to  Englishmen  in  these 
days,  and  is  not  generally  acknowledged  now,  I fancy.” 

We  take  the  following  extract  from  a leader 
in  the  Echo , and  we  add  that  this  clever  device 
to  throw  the  Poor  Rate  on  the  tenant  is  a usual 
proceeding  of  Irish  land  agents.  Is  it  not  time 
we  heard  a little  less  about  the  nobleman’s 
“ rights  of  property,”  and  a little  more  about 
the  poor  man’s  right  to  live. 

“ Lord  Ventry’s  Irish  rental  amounts  to  ^30,000  per 
annum,  and  his  tenants  live  in  mud  cabins  without  windows, 
sometimes  without  doors,  the  smoke  making  its  escape  as 
best  it  may  through  the  door,  or  through  a hole  in  the  roof, 
for  there  are  no  chimneys.  Here  and  there  the  houses  are 
better,  but  in  every  case  they  have  been  erected,  unaided, 
by  the  tenant  himself,  who  not  only  has  to  pay  for  the  cost 
of  erection,  but  is  in  addition  taxed  for  the  improved  yearly 
value  by  an  amended  rating  valuation.  Some  idea  of  the 
condition  of  the  people  may  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that 
during  the  recent  scarcity  4,000  were  receiving  relief  from 
charitable  funds,  towards  which  Lord  Ventry  did  not  think 
it  necessary  to  contribute.  An  ingenious  contrivance  which 
finds  favour  with  his  agent  deserves  notice.  The  law  enacts 
that  where  a valuation  is  under  the  landlord  must  bear 
the  whole  Poor  Rate.  In  this  district  the  rents,  or  many  of 
them,  are  very  small,  so  the  agent  groups  together  in  one  re- 
ceipt for  rent  several  persons,  and,  by  making  them  severally 


Irish  Land  Agents. 


331 


answerable  for  each  other,  adds  to  the  landlord’s  security, 
whilst  compelling  them  to  pay  that  proportion  of  the  Poor 

Rate  they  would  otherwise  escape  ! And 

people  marvel  at  the  thousands  who  crowd  to  listen  to  Mr. 
Parnell,  and  English  landlords  make  the  cause  of  Irish 
landlordism  their  own,  and  even  the  liberal-minded  murmur 
that  whatever  may  have  been  wrong  in  the  past  was  redressed 
long  since  ! Was  it  ? Scan  Europe  from  Brest  to  Astrachan, 
and  where  is  the  tiller  of  the  soil  so  utterly  helpless  as  in 
Ireland  ? Even  the  Turk  only  plunders  intermittingly. 
Coercion  ! let  us  have  coercion  ! shrieks  the  Tory.  Well,  it 
may  come  to  that  in  the  end.  It  is  what  we  have  fallen 
back  upon  any  time  since  the  Union  ; but  there  is  no  states- 
manship in  the  acts  of  force.  Justice  Fortescue  once  said 
that  nothing  makes  a people  rise  against  their  rulers  but  a 
lack  of  goods  or  alack  of  justice.  Ireland  has  long  lacked 
both,  but  the  concession  of  the  one  will  be  followed  by  the 
advent  of  the  other.  May  it  be  Mr.  Gladstone’s  lot  to 
crown  a splendid  career  by  the  completion  of  the  work  with 
which  his  name  is  already  imperishably  connected  ?” 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


THE  FAMINE  YEAR  AND  SENTIMENTAL 
GRIEVANCES. 

“ English  and  Scotch  landowners  in  bad  seasons  bear  their  share  of 
the  depression,  by  abating  a considerable  percentage  of  their  rents.” — 
P.  Mahony , J.  P. 

HE  above  sentence  is  taken  from  a 
pamphlet  addressed  to  the  Right  Hon. 
W.  Forster,  M.P.,by  Richard  Mahony, 
Esq.,  J.P.,  Dromore,  Kenmare.  The  object  of 
the  pamphlet  apparently  is  to  impress  Mr. 
Forster  and  the  public  generally  with  the  ex- 
traordinary virtues  of  Irish  lords,  and  the  fear- 
ful ingratitude  of  the  Government  towards  them. 
He  commences  with  Socrates,  and  ends  not, 
indeed,  with  an  offer  to  poison  himself,  but  with 
a wild  offer  or  threat,  it  is  difficult  to  tell  which, 
of  going  to  an  unknown  district  in  some  free  land, 
“ where  enterprise  is  not  discouraged,  and  where 
life  and  capital  are  secure/'  Why  not  stay  at 
home,  and  allow  laws  to  be  made  which  will 
encourage  enterprise,  and  thus  secure  life  and 
capital.  But  to  do  this  neither  life  nor  capital 


PATRICK  EGAN. 


Sentimental  Grievances. 


333 

must  be  longer  at  the  mercy  of  a class  of  men 
who  will  not  save  the  lives  of  their  tenants  when- 
ever a God-sent  calamity  overtakes  them — and 
who  rack-rent  all  their  capital  from  them,  and  then 
taunt  them  with  being  paupers.  He  says  the 
landlords  are  a “ garrison,”  (p.  52,)  which  is  quite 
true,  and  that  they  have  “ defended  themselves 
honourably,”  which  is  partly  true.  They  have 
certainly  defended  themselves,  and  that  some- 
what rudely,  but  some  persons  may  question  the 
honourable  nature  of  the  defence.  It  would  be 
impossible  to  notice  all  the  wild  writing  in  this 
curious  production,  which  includes  the  following 
remarkable  observation  : — 

“ When  Socrates,  falsely  accused,  and  adjudged  guilty  by  a 
large  majority  in  a popular  assembly,  was  permitted  to  award 
his  own  sentence,  he  gave  his  opinion  that  he  ought  to  be  en- 
tertained honourably  during  the  rest  of  his  life  at  the  public 
expense.  The  government  of  the  day,  however,  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  he  should  drink  hemlock.  Not  long 
afterwards  they  discovered  that  they  had  killed  the  wrong 
man. 

“ There  are  people  recklessly  impeached  every  day 
before^popular  assemblies  in  Ireland,  who,  if  not  as  wise  as 
Socrates,  would  certainly,  before  a fair  tribunal,  be  found  as 
innocent  of  the  crime  of  which  they  are  accused.” 


Whether  the  English  Government  will  be  in- 
duced by  this  touching  appeal  to  pension  off 


334  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated \ 

and  feast  luxuriously  the  Irish  landlords  for  the 
rest  of  their  lives  remains  to  be  seen.  Possibly 
some  of  Her  Majesty’s  Ministers  may  think  that 
if  these  same  landlords  had  tried  to  feed  their 
tenants  even  with  the  poorest  food  during  the 
late  famine,  and  if  they  had  followed  the 
example  of  English  and  Scotch  landlords  by 
“abating  a considerable  percentage  of  their 
rents,”  that  they  would  have  been  more  worthy 
of  perennial  banquetting.  But  this  was  precisely 
what  Irish  landlords  did  not  do.  The  most 
lamentable  efforts  were  made  to  deny  the  dis- 
tress until  it  was  past  denying,  and  even  then 
the  most  miserable  and  contemptible  subterfuges 
were  made  use  of  to  make  it  appear  less  than  it 
was,  or,  if  that  was  not  possible,  to  make  it  ap- 
pear the  fault  of  the  people. 

It  was  the  fault  of  misgovernment.  It  was 
the  strongest  proof  that  could  possibly  be  given 
of  the  fearful  normal  state  of  destitution  in  which 
the  people  live,  and  it  should  arouse  the  deep 
sympathy  of  every  Christian  heart.  What ! be- 
cause one  of  the  commonest  articles  of  food  fails, 
the  whole  population  are  plunged  into  famine. 
Why  ? because  the  people  are  normally  in  such 
a state  of  poverty  that  a potato  stands  between 
them  and  a famine — a potato  which  is  an  accom- 
paniment to  the  meal  of  the  same  class  in  Eng- 


Sentimental  Grievances. 


335 


land,  and  not  as  here  the  meal  itself.  Could  any- 
thing prove  better  the  wretched  state  of  the 
country  ? 

But  it  is  all  their  own  fault.  How  easily  said, 
and  how  untrue.  Ireland  has  been  deliberately 
and  cruelly  prevented  from  having  any  other 
food,  because  the  manufactures  and  industries 
which  are  needed  for  the  ordinary  well-being  of 
every  nation  have  been  denied  her.  Let  me 
again  quote  from  Mr.  Russell’s  letters,  and  let 
it  be  noted  that  these  are  not  matters  of  opinion 
about  which  there  may  be  a dispute.  No  ; these 
are  matters  of  fact  about  which  there  can  be  no 
dispute. 

“ As  to  the  commercial  laws.  In  1660  Ireland’s  proximity 
to  America,  and  the  good  quality  of  its  natural  harbours,  had 
caused  a considerable  Irish  colonial  trade  to  spring  up,  but 
by  legislation  in  1663,  the  importation  of  any  European 
article  into  an  English  colony,  except  from  England,  and  in 
English  ships,  built  and  manned  by  Englishmen,  was  prohi- 
bited. This  was  capped,  in  1696,  by  an  express  provision 
that  no  goods  of  any  kind  should  be  imported  direct  from 
the  colonies  into  Ireland.  About  the  same  period  the  ex- 
portation of  Irish  cattle  was  becoming  a source  of  wealth  to 
the  country  ; but  upon  the  complaint  of  English  landowners 
that  thereby  their  rents  were  being  affected,  laws  were 
enacted,  in  1665  and  1680,  prohibiting  the  importation  from 
Ireland,  not  only  of  cattle,  but  also  of  butter  and  cheese. 
Upon  this,  Ireland,  striving  to  accommodate  itself  to  this 
harsh  legislation,  turned  to  extensive  sheep  farming.  In  a 
few  years  a flourishing  trade  in  woollen  manufactures  existed. 


336 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


Again  English  jealousy  was  aroused.  Export  duties  were 
imposed.  But  even  these  failing  utterly  to  crush  the  trade, 
the  Irish  were,  in  1699,  prohibited  from  exporting  their 
woollen  goods  to  any  country  whatsoever.  This  was  a sad 
blow.  Between  20,000  and  30.000  operatives  had  been 
employed  in  this  branch  of  trade  alone.  The  linen  trade 
had  existed,  in  some  small  degree,  as  early  as  the  fifteenth 
century,  but,  by  1700,  it  had  risen  to  great  importance.  In 
1705  the  Irish  were  first  allowed  to  export  their  white  and 
brown  linen  to  British  colonies  ; but  they  were  forbidden  to 
bring  back  any  colonial  goods  in  return.  In  this  linen  trade 
England  was  no  competitor;  but  it  was  feared  that  the  Irish 
would  supersede  the  Dutch  linen,  and  so  cause  jealousy  in 
Holland.  Accordingly,  attempts  were  made  to  restrict  the 
manufacture  to  the  coarsest  kinds.  But  these  attempts  ulti- 
mately proved  unavailing.  Even  as  to  the  fisheries,  it  is 
almost  amusing  to  read  that,  about  the  beginning  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  petitions  from  Folkestone  and  Aid- 
borough  were  considered  in  Parliament,  complaining  of  the 
injury  done  to  the  fisheries  of  these  towns  ‘by  the  Irish 
catching  herrings  at  Waterford  and  Wexford,  and  sending 
them  to  the  straits,  thereby  forestalling  and  ruining  your 
petitioners’  markets/  There  was  even  a party  in  England 
desirous  of  prohibiting  all  fisheries  on  the  Irish  shore,  except 
by  boats  built  and  manned  by  Englishmen ! 

Here  we  have  in  a few  sentences  the  cause  of 
Irish  famines.  What  wonder  if  the  Nemesis 
should  come  from  America  where  the  Celt  has 
“ pfone  with  a vengeance.”  The  Minister  Ex- 
press , in  an  article  headed  “ Ireland’s  Decay,” 
says  : — ■ 

“ The  Registrar-General  has  issued  his  report  of  the 


Sentimental  Grievances . 337 

annual  stock-taking  of  Ireland,  and  it  is  a dismal  and  de- 
pressing document.  Decrease  is  written  in  every  page. 
There  is  a decrease  of  40,609  acres  in  the  area  under  crops  ; 
there  is  a decrease  of  14,837  in  the  number  of  horses  and 
mules ; a decrease  of  2,594  in  the  number  of  asses  ; a de- 
crease of  146,752  in  the  number  of  cattle;  a decrease  of 
456,542  in  the  number  of  sheep  ; a decrease  of  223,149  in 
the  number  of  pigs  ; a decrease  of  13,155  in  the  number  of 
goats,  and  a decrease  of  356,106  in  the  number  of  poultry. 
This  document  tells  of  the  gradual  decadence  in  Irish 
farming.  The  land  devoted  to  cereal  crops,  which  in  1847, 
occupied  3,313,579  acres,  or  one-fourth  of  the  arable  land, 
has  gradually  lessened,  and  in  1880  was  only  1,766,424 
acres,  or  less  than  one-eighth  of  the  arable  land.  Notwith- 
standing the  supply  of  seed,  there  is  a diminution  of  21,943 
acres  in  the  area  under  potatoes  ; and  in  green  crops  there 
is  a dimunition  of  25,388  acres.  The  return  shows  very 
painfully  the  effect  of  the  past  season,  and  the  action  of  the 
landlords  upon  the  tillage  of  the  poor — their  asses,  their 
pigs,  their  goats,  and  their  poultry,  have  all  diminished  in 
number.  Notwithstanding  the  continued  boasts  of  great 
prices  for  dairy  produce,  there  is  a decrease  of  67,985  in  the 
number  of  milch  cows,  and  of  108,096  in  the  number  of 
calves;  in  1859,  the  number  of  milch  cows  in  Ireland  was 
1, 690, 339  ; in  1880,  it  was  reduced  to  1,396,833.  The 
decrease  is  293,556.  These  figures  show  that  dairy  farming 
cannot  be  so  profitable  as  those  who  argue  in  favour  of  high 
rents  wish  to  make  out,  but  which  they  are  unable  to  prove. 
It  is  usually  calculated  that  each  milch  cow  should  return 
^ioa  year,  and  the  annual  loss  to  Ireland  upon  the  dimi- 
nished number  of  milch  cows  would  be  nearly  three  millions 
sterling  (^2,935,560).  The  alleged  increase  in  the  price  of 
butter  does  not  compensate  for  this  loss.  The  porcine  race 
has  gone  down  from  1,621,443  in  1S71,  t0  849,046  in  1880; 

W 


338 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


the  diminution  is  772,397,  or  about  48  per  cent  The  num- 
ber of  breeding  pigs,  those  of  one  year  old  and  upwards, 
which  was  322,982  in  1859,  lias  been  reduced  to  115.309  in 
1880.  The  pigs  under  a year  old,  from  which  the  market 
supply  was  drawn,  has  diminished  by  650,857.  If  these 
animals  were  in  the  country  they  would,  when  fat  and  fit  for 
killing,  represent  from  two  to  two  and  a-half  millions  sterling. 
We  miss  from  the  return  an  account  which  used  to  appear 
in  former  numbers — the  Emigration  from  Ireland.  Irish 
Farming  is  perishing  under  excessive  rents.” 

And  the  only  remedy  that  can  be  suggested 
for  all  this  by  sapient  Irish  landlords  is  emigra- 
tion. Get  rid  of  the  people ! and  will  that 
fertilise  the  country  ? will  that  reclaim  waste 
lands  ? will  that  re-establish  fisheries  ? will  that 
open  up  new  industrial  resources  ? Was  there 
ever  a wilder  absurdity  ? Because,  let  us  say, 
ten  men  cannot  make  the  land  sufficiently 
fertile  or  profitable  for  existence,  send  away  five 
of  them,  and  who  is  to  do  the  work  of  the  five 
sent  away  ? To  such  absurdities  are  men 
driven  when,  in  their  miserable  selfishness,  they 
can  see  no  interest  but  their  own. 

The  special  correspondent  of  the  Standard 
says  : — 

“There  are  several  ways  in  which  it  may  be  shown  how 
impracticable  it  is  for  a family  holding  a small  farm,  and 
unable  to  pay  their  rent,  to  continue  to  live  upon  it  as 
human  beings,  even  in  the  worst  condition.  The  average 


Sentimental  Grievances.  339 

number  of  persons  in  an  Irish  family  is  six  ; the  average 
cost  of  maintaining  a person  in  a workhouse  is  ^9.  Unless, 
therefore,  a man  clears  an  average  of  ,£54  annually,  in  ad- 
dition to  his  rent,  he  must  sink  with  his  family  to  a measur- 
able condition  below  that  of  the  inmate  of  a workhouse. 
Again,  let  us  take  a farm  of  sixty  acres,  say,  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Kenmare.  Kerry  farms  are  not  estimated  by 
acres,  but  by  being  in  pasturage.  The  sixty  acres  represent 
4 cow’s  grass,’  the  greater  portion  of  the  country  grass  for 
ten  cows,  which  yield  from  ten  to  twelve  firkins  of  butter, 
selling  at  an  average  price  of  ^3  per  firkin,  thus  making, 
say  . ^36.  Four  calves  are  sold  for  30s.  net.  A porker,  or 
4 bonnive’  costing  jQ 1 16s.,  is  sold,  at  the  expiration  of  five 
or  six  months,  when  fattened,  for  ^3  or  ^4,  but,  as  was  re- 
marked to  me,  a pig  in  Ireland  is  really  an  investment  in  a 
Porcine  Savings’  Bank,  the  instalments  being  the  sums  spent 
in  feeding  stuffs,  until  the  4 gintleman’  is  ready  to  pay  the 
* rint.’  A few  young  sheep  are  bought  for  15s.  or  20s.  each  j 
money  is  spent  in  fattening  them,  and  they  are  then  sold  at 
about  jQ 2 each.  Against  these  figures  have  to  be  placed 
the  rent,  £15,  the  poor  rates — which  are  sometimes,  as  I 
have  shown,  4s.  6d.  in  the  pound —an  average  of  jQi  ; 
county  cess,  jQ 2 ; meal,  &c.,  for  the  support  of  the  family, 
^15  ; feeding  stuffs  for  cattle,  ^3  10s;  to  say  nothing  of 
clothing,  education,  religious,  and  miscellaneous  expenses. 
The  problem  is — can  such  a family  ever  better  their  condi- 
tion ? ” 

The  landlord  says,  get  rid  of  them.  But 
when  they  are  got  rid  of,  what  then  ? If  there 
is  no  other  remedy  for  Irish  misery  and  destitu- 
tion but  to  fling  them  out  on  the  streets  of  New 
York,  and  so  get  rid  of  them,  what  are  we  to 


340  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

say  of  the  statesmanship  of  such  a proposal  ? 
A Red  Indian  might  shrink  for  shame  if  such  a 
suggestion  were  made  in  his  hearing. 

And  yet  this  is  the  only  remedy  we  hear  of 
from  the  vast  multitude  of  Irish  landlords.  But 
it  has  been  tried  here  in  this  very  district  o 
Ken  mare. 

Mr.  Stewart  Trench  flung  5,000  unhappy 
people  on  the  streets  of  New  York  after  the 
late  famine,  and  to-day  his  son  and  successor 
in  the  agency  has  only  the  same  plan  to  suggest. 
One  might  have  thought  that  when  the  ex- 
periment  had  so  signally  failed  before,  and 
had  met  with  the  reprobation  of  every  man  of 
common  humanity,  that  it  would  not  be  again 
suggested. 

And  the  Irish  people  are  expected  to  act 
with  devoted  loyalty  to  men  who,  in  the  time 
of  famine,  not  only  will  not  help  them,  but  will 
actually  try  to  prevent  others  from  helping  them, 
and  who  would  fling  them  into  the  emigrant 
ship  like  cattle,  if  they  dared. 

As  there  certainly  must  be  some  one  left  to 
till  the  land  in  Ireland  and  to  pay  the  rent, 
clearly  if  the  Irish  are  driven  out  other  people 
must  be  brought  in.  This  is  an  experiment 
which  has  been  tried  before,  but  there  are  some 
persons  who  can  never  learn  from  experience. 


Sentimental  G rievances . 


34i 


Let  the  Irish  landlords  get  rid  of  their  tenants 
and  bring  over  English  settlers.  If  they  do,  a 
very  few  months  will  settle  the  land  question. 
English  farmers  will  not  live  on  Indian  meal,  or 
any  other  meal,  in  order  to  pay  rack  rents. 

The  Times , the  English  landlord  organ,  said 
lately,  in  a passing  gleam  of  justice  : — 

“ In  the  details  of  Irish  destitution  there  is  generally,  not 
to  say  always,  an  omission  that  would  never  be  found  in 
any  corresponding  details  in  this  country.  Where  is  the 
landlord  ? If  a population  were  found  in  any  part  of  this 
island  hugging  the  soil,  fighting  for  patches,  living  like  pigs, 
and  every  now  and  then  clamouring  for  somebody  to  tide 
them  over  their  difficulties,  we  should  at  once  ask  for  the 
landlord.  No  title,  no  political  influence,  no  personal 
merits,  would  protect  him  from  a very  unpleasant  intrusion 
into  his  private  affairs.  If  he  pleaded  that  he  could  not 
help  it,  the  public  would  soon  see  that  his  hands  were  at 
liberty. 

This  is  what  the  Land  League  says.  But 
what  is  flat  blasphemy  in  the  private  soldier  is 
only  a rough  word  in  the  colonel. 

And  it  is  not  in  Kerry  or  Connemara  alone 
that  this  dire  poverty  exists.  The  Rev.  E. 
Sheehy,  C.C.,  speaking  at  the  Kilmallock  meet- 
ing, said  : — 

“It  had  been  stated,  and  that  statement  had  been  repeated, 
that  the  agitation  for  the  abolition  of  landlordism,  started  in 
the  sterile  and  poverty-stricken  district  of  Connemara  (cheers 


342 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


for  Connemara),  would  close,  and  would  not  receive  the  sup- 
port of  the  endorsement  of  the  other  provinces  of  Ireland. 
They  were  assembled  there  to-day,  people  born,  cradled,  and 
nurtured  in  the  golden  vale  of  Ireland.  It  was  not  merely 
Connaught  to-day,  but  Kilmallock,  that  spoke  in  the  name 
of  the  sacred  principle  of  a free  land  for  a free  people  (cheers). 
He  had  had  an  extensive  ramble  through  this  wide  earth, 
and  he  had  not  seen  anything  to  compare  with  the  luxuriant 
richness  of  that  golden  vale  of  theirs.  Yet,  what  had  they 
on  its  fertile  bosom  ? They  had  fat  cattle  and  famishing 
Christians  (cheers.)  They  had  emigration  schemes  and 
cattle  shows.” 

The  following  were  present  at  this  important 
meeting : — 

“ Rev.  M.  Clery,  P.P.,  Bulgaden  ; Rev.  E.  Clifford,  C.C., 
Kilmallock  ; Rev.  E.  Sheehy,  C.C.,  Kilmallock  ; Rev.  Mr. 
Enright,  P.P.,  Rockhue ; Rev.  Mr.  Costello,  C.C.,  Rock- 
hue  : Rev.  Mr.  Canick,  P.P.,  Ardpatrick  ; Rev.  T.  O’Reilly, 
C.C.,  Charleville  ; Rev.  J.  Conway,  Rev.  Canon  Slattery, 
P.P.,  Hospital;  Rev.  J.  Fitzgerald,  C.C.,  Bulgaden;  Rev. 
J.  Gubbins,  Kilmallock ; Messrs.  William  Henry  O’Sullivan, 
M.P.,  Michael  Ryan,  J.P.,  Bruree.” 

The  Chairman,  the  Rev.  M.  O.  Cleary,  P.P., 
said : — 

“ He  would  say  the  cause  of  murders  was  the  half-hearted, 
deaf  ear  the  English  Government  had  lent  to  the  grievances 
of  the  country. 

“ There  was  bloodshed  in  the  matter  of  the  tithes,  and 
O’Connell  did  not  charge  himself  with  that  bloodshed, 
though  he  was  agitating  against  the  tithes  (hear,  hear.)  He 


Sen timen tal  Grieva nces. 


343 


did  not  fear  to  raise  his  loud  voice  and  tell  the  Government 
their  grievances,  for  he  was  the  vindicator  of  the  people’s 
rights  (cheers.)  The  land  question  was  now  the  leading 
question,  and  it  had  been  stained  with  blood,  but  had  it  not 
also  been  stained  by  the  wholesale  murder  of  gigantic  evic- 
tions that  filled  the  emigrant  ships  and  crammed  the  grave- 
yards? For  he  remembered  when  a Protestant  minister,  the 
owner  of  a grave-yard,  had  to  stop  interments,  for  the  place 
was  choked  with  the  dead  victims  of  evictions.” 

I do  not  think  the  people  can  be  induced,  and 
they  can  scarcely  be  compelled,  to  leave  Ireland 
wholesale.  But  what  is  the  result  of  the  pre- 
sent efforts  to  get  rid  of  the  population  in  that 
way  ? Again,  1 give  English  authority.  Lord 
Emly  can  scarcely  be  claimed  as  one  having 
“ national  ” proclivities  in  any  sense.  He  said 
in  the  debate  on  the  Relief  of  Distress 
[Ireland]  Bill  in  the  House  of  Lords  : — 

“ There  were,  however,  districts  in  which  there  had  been 
distress  for  many  years,  and  which  was  not  owing  to  bad 
harvests,  but  to  the  poorness  of  the  soil  and  over  population. 
Those  dis  ricts  extended  along  the  west  coast  of  Ireland — 
ftom  Donegal,  Mayo,  Galway,  Clare,  Cork,  and  Kerry,  and 
comprised  a very  considerable  population.  The  hon.  mem- 
ber for  the  county  of  Waterford,  who  was  a Fishery  Com- 
missioner in  1876  and  1877,  and  having  to  dispose  of  certain 
loans,  had  to  make  himself  acquainted  with  the  condition  of 
the  people  on  the  coast  of  Galway;  that  hon.  member,  in  one 
of  his  fishery  reports,  said  that  the  holdings  of  the  people 
there  were  miserably  small — one  or  two  acres — and  that  in 
the  best  of  times  the  people  were  in  a state  of  semi-starvation, 


344 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


that  their  lodging  was  miserable,  that  they  had  not  got 
clothes  to  enable  them  to  go  to  Mass  ; and  that  they  had  all 
those  scorbutic  diseases  which  arose  from  a constant  want 
of  food.  Passing  on  to  Mayo,  he  saw  an  account  written 
only  lately  in  a very  able  manner  by  Mr.  Fox,  and  addressed 
to  the  Dublin  Mansion  House  Committee,  in  which  that 
gentleman  said  the  great  evil  of  the  times  in  Mayo  was  not 
the  question  of  rent,  but  other  evils  ; that  their  holdings  were 
too  small,  and  deficient  in  quantity  and  quality.  This  was  a 
question  of  special  importance  now,  because  when  there  was 
a prospect  of  a good  harvest,  and  the  distress  in  other  parts 
of  Ireland  was  passing  away,  the  normal  condition  of  the 
west  coast  of  Ireland  would  be  forgotten  and  left  without 
remedy.  Mr.  Parnell  seemed  to  think  that  the  only  remedy 
would  be  for  the  population  to  move  to  the  fertile  plains  of 
Meath,  but  he  did  not  think  that  the  Meath  farmers  would 
believe  in  that.  In  his  opinion  the  best  remedy  would  be 
found  in  assisting  families  to  the  colonies.  There  was  one 
objection  to  assisting  emigration,  and  that  was  a most  power- 
ful one,  viz. — that  assisting  emigration  interfered  with  volun- 
tary emigration,  and  that  it  would  dam  at  once  the  spring 
from  which  great  sums  of  money  now  came  from  America 
for  emigration.  But  in  his  opinion  the  emigration  which 
was  now  going  on  was  an  almost  unmitigated  evil. 
Families  did  not  emigrate,  and  the  very  poorest  could 
not  emigrate.  He  himself  only  the  other  day,  at  Queens- 
town, saw  the  class  of  persons  that  were  emigrating. 
He  went  on  board  an  emigrant  ship  and  saw  them.  The 
persons  who  were  emigrating  were  the  very  bone  and  sinew 
of  the  country — young  men  and  young  women  well  clothed 
and  apparently  respectable  in  every  way.  It  appeared  to  him 
that  that  kind  of  emigration  was  a distinct  loss  to  the  country. 
They  did  not  wish  to  get  rid  of  that  class  of  persons,  but  the 
very  poor  and  miserable,  who  might  find  homes  in  the  colonies, 


Sentimental  Grievances. 


345 


and  be  very  comfortable.  Such  a state  of  things  as  that 
which  he  had  mentioned  was  a disgrace  to  this  country,  and 
it  was  their  bounden  duty  to  attempt  to  redress  it  (hear, 
hear). 

No  doubt  the  colonies  will  know  how  to  be 
grateful  to  the  noble  lord  for  his  charitable 
suggesti°n.  If  the  subject  were  not  so  grave, 
it  would  be  simply  amusing.  The  aged,  the 
miserable,  the  worn  out,  are  to  be  flung  out  of 
Ireland ; the  young,  the  strong,  are  to  remain 
until  they  also  are  worn  out  and  sinking  under 
the  burden  of  making  bricks  without  straw.  It 
is  no  wonder  that  Ireland  has  not  much  faith  in 
English  legislation. 

I was  speaking  to  a gentleman  who  owns 
vast  estates  in  different  parts  of  Ireland,  and 
calling  his  attention  to  the  miserable  fare  of  his 
tenantry,  and  to  the  amazement  of  some  Eng- 
lish friends  who  discovered  that  they  never 
eat  meat  of  any  kind,  nor  even  fish,  that 
their  sole  fare  was  Indian  meal  or  potatoes. 
His  reply  was  not  made  in  any  unkind  spirit. 
He  said: — “Are  not  potatoes  and  milk  good 
enough  for  them?”  I replied: — “You  know 
very  well  that  most  of  them  cannot  get  milk.” 

Now,  I ask,  dare  any  English  gentleman  say 
this  of  the  farmers  on  his  property ; and  why 
are  the  Irish  to  live  on  poorer  fare  ? 


346  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 

Then  we  are  perpetually  told  that  the  Irish 
impoverish  themselves  by  drinking  whiskey.  I 
hope  I shall  not  be  considered  an  advocate  for 
drink  if  I say,  why  should  they  not  drink 
whiskey  ? The  Englishman  drinks  beer  and 
gin  and  the  Irishman  drinks  whiskey.  No 
doubt,  it  would  be  better  for  both  if  they  drank 
water.  But,  if  the  millennium  of  temperance 
has  not  come,  why  is  the  Irishman  to  be  selected 
as  a special  object  of  scorn  and  reproach,  be- 
cause he  uses  his  national  drink?  And  who 
gives  it  him  ? Who,  I had  almost  said,  refuses 
him  anything  else  ? Who,  I had  almost  said, 
forces  this  vile  drink  on  him  ? Who,  but  the 
very  land  agents  of  these  landlords,  who  are  so 
busy  denouncing  the  Irish  for  drinking? 

It  is  they  who  license  so  many  public  houses. 
Why  do  they  license  every  other  house  in  some 
miserable  little  village?  Truly,  every  honest 
industry  is  snatched  from  the  people’s  hands, 
and  the  cup  of  destruction  is  pressed  on  them. 

In  a letter  of  Lord  Fitzmaurice’s,  he  accuses 
the  people  on  his  brother’s  (Lord  Lansdowne) 
property,  at Cahirciveen, with  “habitual  drunken- 
ness and  yet,  Mr.  Russell  tells  us,  they  had 
been  imploring  in  vain  for  a supply  of  water ! 

“ One  other  matter  I must  mention  : it  is  a subject  of 
bitterness  at  Cahirciveen.  This  town  has  now  a very  defec- 


Sentimental  Grievances . 


347 


tive  water  supply  ; but,  lying  at  the  base  of  a range  of  hills, 
there  is  ample  water-shed  easily  available,  and,  at  the  small 
cost  of  about  ^700,  capable  of  supplying  the  town  at  a high 
pressure.  The  town  was  willing  to  bear  one-half  the  interest 
on  this  expenditure  of  capital,  but  the  college  would  not 
bear  the  remainder.” 

Perhaps,  if  the  people  were  supplied  with 
water,  and  a few,  at  least,  of  the  public  houses 
closed,  we  might  hear  less  of  drinking. 

Dean  Dickinson,  like  too  many  men  of  his 
class,  has  lately  brought  forward  the  stock  story 
of  the  famine  being  all  the  fault  of  drinking 
and  of  drunkenness. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Wingham,  a Protestant  clergy- 
man, has  well  replied  to  this  miserable  calumny 
in  a letter  to  the  Ballinasloe  Western  News : — 

“ Sir, — I read  for  the  first  time,  in  your  paper  of  the  30th 
ult.,  the  astounding  remarks  recently  made  at  a Dublin 
meeting  by  Dean  Dickinson,  and  in  support  of  which,  it 
appears,  he  gave  me  as  one  of  his  authorities.  I know  not 
what  information  he  may  have  gleaned  elsewhere,  during  his 
temperance  tour  in  the  West,  but,  so  far  as  I am  concerned, 
I utterly  repudiate  the  statement  he  is  reported  to  have 
made.  So  far  was  I from  saying  that  the  ‘ cry  of  distress 
was  a wholesale  fraud,’  I assumed,  in  my  conversation  with 
him  (what  no  sane  man  could  deny),  that  wide-spread  distress 
existed.  I instanced  the  localities  in  this  province  on  which 
the  famine  had  fallen  in  its  direst  form,  in  consequence  of 
failure — not  only  at  home  but  in  England  and  Scotland — 
depriving  many  thousands  of  the  employment  by  which,  in 


348  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

ordinary  years,  they  are  enabled  to  eke  out  a scanty  subsist- 
ence. These  statements  do  not  seem  to  have  made  any 
impression  on  the  Dean ; for  he  is  reported  to  have  made 
the  extravagant  assertion  that,  * so  far  as  real  distress  was 
concerned,  it  seemed  that  the  majority  of  it — nine-tenths  of 
it,  perhaps — was  caused  by  the  drunken  habits  of  the  people, 
political  agitators,  and  idleness.’  It  is  little  wonder  that  a 
statement  such  as  this  should  have  occasioned  the  deepest 
indignation,  and  called  forth  loud  and  energetic  protests.” 

One  of  the  usual  charges  against  Ireland  is, 
that  the  people  are  “ungrateful.”  So  frequently 
is  it  reiterated  that  it  is  actually  believed.  And 
though  no  one  can  point  out  any  particular  reason 
why  we  should  be  grateful  to  England,  it  does 
not  matter — the  charge  is  persisted  in  all  the 
same.  It(  might  be  supposed,  indeed,  that  the 
English  Government  and  the  Irish  landlords 
had  wearied  themselves  pouring  forth  favours 
on  a people  who,  in  return,  did  nothing  but 
rebel.  But  between  Ireland  and  England 
there  should  be  no  question  of  gratitude — the 
idea  is  simply  absurd.  We  do  not  court  and 
we  do  not  ask  favours ; but  we  ask  and  we  do 
not  get  justice.  Why  should  we  be  “grateful”  for 
help  in  the  Famine  Year,  for  example  ? Is  not 
Ireland  part  of  the  United  Kingdom?  Yet  we 
are  told — the  Irish  are  so  ungrateful  for  all  that 
was  done  for  them  last  year. 

I am  very  unwilling  to  criticise  what  was 


Sentimental  Grievances. 


349 


kindly  meant ; but  truth  has  higher  claims  than 
compliments.  I am  afraid  it  must  be  said  truth- 
fully— that  England  did  very  little  for  Ireland, 
and  that  same  little  was  done  very  grudgingly. 
Again  and  again  the  English  papers  rang  with 
denials  of  the  distress.  What  did  the  English 
Government  do  for  Ireland  in  that  famine  ? 
Nothing.  We  were,  indeed,  allowed  to  tax 
ourselves  with  a “ Seeds  Potato  Bill,” — a Bill 
which  never  would  have  passed  the  House  of 
Lords  had  not  its  noble  legislators  known  well 
that,  if  they  did  not  make  some  effort  to  provide 
the  people  with  potatoes  to  plant,  they  might 
look  in  vain  the  next  year  for  their  rents. 

The  Queen,  it  is  true,  gave  ^500 ; but  three 
millions  were  spent  in  India,  to  give  her  the 
empty  title  of  Empress  of  a people  who  do  not 
show  much  love  of  English  Government.  Al- 
most  at  the  same  time,  the  very  'same  sum  was 
given  by  a gentleman  in  London  towards  the 
election  expenses  of  Mr.  H.  Gladstone,  and 
many  sums  of  scarcely  less  amount  were  in  his 
subscription  list.  No  ; Ireland  is  not  ungrate- 
ful ; but,  when  a fearful  national  calamity  comes, 
and  when  its  existence  is  denied,  and  intention- 
ally denied,  for  political  or  other  purposes,  and 
when  the  assistance  given  is  doled  out  with 

o 

grudging  reluctance  and  incessant  reproach, 


350 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


even  were  it  in  proport;~>n  to  the  need,  there 
was  small  claim  for  gratitude.  Had  such  a 
calamity  occurred  in  any  part  of  England,  we 
know  what  expressions  of  sympathy,  at  least, 
would  have  been  used  by  the  majority  of  the 
people  of  England.  All  the  royal  sympathy 
we  received  was  from  the  Duke  of  Edinburgh, 
who  “wished”  the  people  of  Arran  had  blan- 
kets ;L  and  I suppose  we  ought  to  be  grateful  for 
royal  wishes. 

Nor  can  it  be  forgotten  that  the  food  given 
was  of  the  very  coarsest  kind.  Even  the  vile 
suggestion  was  made  in  an  English  paper 


1 At  the  meeting  of  the  Mansion  House  Committee,  April  8th,  1880, 
the  following  official  telegram  was  read  and  published  in  the  Freeman's 
Journal , April  9th  : 

“His  Royal  Highness  the  Duke  of  Edinburgh,  yesterday,  visited 
North  Arran  and  the  villages  of  Kilronan  and  Killaney.  In  the  latter 
he  found  abject  misery,  many  people  with  little  clothes  to  cover  them, 
and  houses  visited  without  food,  fuel,  or  furniture.  The  beds  and  bed- 
clothing would  require  the  pen  of  Charles  Dickens  to  describe  them. 
The  Committee  expressed  their  gratitude  to  the  Mansion  House  Com- 
mittee, and  stated  that,  but  for  the  grants  sent  there,  many  deaths  from 
starvation  must  have  occurred.  On  our  way  back  to  Galway  we  visited 
Costello’s  Bay,  and  hope  on  Saturday,  or  early  next  week,  to  send  a 
supply  of  clothing  there,  as  it  is  much  wanted.  The  Duke  expressed  a 
wish  that  every  house  he  visited  should  have  a pair  of  blankets  that 
night.” 

The  blankets  given  out  by  the  Dublin  Committee  were  hardly  fit  for 
horse  cloths,  at  least  those  that  I saw,  and,  I have  reason  to  believe,  the 
same  kind  were  sent  everywhere. 


Sentimental  Grievances.  351 

that  this  food,  which  in  England  would  hardly 
be  given  to  dogs,  should  be  made  in  some  way 
unpalatable.  Throughout  the  whole  business 
the  Irish  were  treated  as  if  the  famine  was 
solely  their  own  fault,  and  as  if  to  give  them 
anything  was  an  act  of  grace  to  felons.  Nor 
could  the  Irish  people  fail  to  note  the  difference 
both  in  spirit  and  in  food  between  the  relief 
given  to  the  T urks  and  to  them,  as  the  following 
will  show  : — 


TURKS. 

Graphic , July  10th: — 

“ Good  strong  soup  is 
given  out  twice  a week,  and 
biscuits  on  other  days.  As 
the  time  for  distribution 
draws  near,  a certain  number 
of  the  people  are  told  off  for 
bearing  the  soup,  and  enter 
the  huge  kitchen,  where  seven 
seething  cauldrons  are  placed 
upon  a trough  of  fire ; from 
here  they  march  out,  each 
carrying  a bucket  of  the  hot 
liquid  which  is  to  vanquish 
for  the  moment  the  terrible 
cold  benumbing  the  poor 
dwellers  of  the  khan.” 


IRISH. 

Freeman's  Journal,  July  10, 
1880 : — 

“ Outdoor  relief  has  been 
given  with  such  an  illiberal 
hand  by  the  Castlebar  guar- 
dians, the  weekly  allowance 
for  a large  family  being  in 
many  instances  only  two 
stones  of  yellow  meal.  Hun- 
dreds of  our  people  are  with- 
out employment,  and  their 
cry  is  ‘ Food  or  labour !’  yet 
labour  or  food  will  be  slow 
to  come  unless  you  take  in- 
stant action,  and  step  in  to 
stand  between  the  people 
and  death.” 


I had  some  idea  of  giving  extracts  from  the 


352  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

reports  made  to  the  Duchess  of  Marlborough’s 
Committee  and  to  the  Mansion  House  Com- 
mittee, but  I fear  it  would  occupy  too  much 
space.  I fear  also  that  those  who  were  deter- 
mined to  believe  that  famine  in  Ireland  was  not 
as  severe  as  it  was  would  hardly  be  convinced 
even  by  such  high  authorities  as  a Royal  Duke, 
Lord  Randolph  Churchill,  Major  Gaskell,  and 
others.  I append,  however,  an  extract  from  a 
report  from  Major  Gaskell,  read  by  Lord  R. 
Churchill  before  the  Duchess  of  Marlborough’s 
Committee,  in  March,  1880.  He  said,  speaking 
of  Donegal  : — 

“ The  ties  of  association  or  tradition  must  be  strong,  in- 
deed, which  bind  a superior  race  so  fast  to  a home  unattrac- 
tive from  all  points  of  view  except  those  of  sentiment  and 
romance.  The  harvest  of  the  sea,  no  doubt,  contributed 
more  than  that  of  the  land  to  feed  and  clothe  the  forefathers 
of  the  present  generation.  Fishing  and  manufacture  of  kelp 
must  have  been  lucrative  up  to  a comparatively  recent  date. 
But  of  late  years  the  price  of  kelp  has  been  less  remunerative, 
while  fishing  has  declined  owing  to  the  wearing  out  of  tackle 
and  the  inability  through  gradually  increasing  poverty  to 
replace  it.  The  only  market  the  fishermen  have  is  the 
chance  one  of  a passing  steamer,  which  must  be  intercepted 
by  the  row-boats  in  the  open  sea.  To  row  out  into  the 
Atlantic  in  a 20  feet  boat  is  no  light  matter.  The  boat 
must  be  good,  and  the  crew  steady  ; and  so  they  are.  But 
a trade  so  costly  and  full  of  risk  was  profitable  only  under 
favourable  conditions  of  weather  and  demand,  and  both  were 
adverse  in  1879.  Besides  making  kelp  and  fishing,  the 


Sentimental  Grievances . 


353 


population  of  the  Rosses  and  the  neighbouring  islands  have 
been  in  the  habit  of  adding  to  their  means  of  livelihood  by 
farm  labour  abroad  in  the  summer  months.  Each  year,  as 
soon  as  the  seed  potatoes  and  oats  have  been  planted, 
almostall  the  able-bodied  males  emigrate  to  Scotland,  whence 
they  return  after  the  harvest  with  varying  amounts  of  money 
per  head,  the  average  being  £6  or  ^7.  Last  year  the  labour 
market  was  so  dull  that  among  three  was  about  the  high- 
est sum  saved,  and  was  looked  upon  as  a fortune.  Few 
brought  home  anything,  and  many  nothing  at  all ; while 
quite  half  the  emigrants  were  so  much  worse  at  the  end  of 
the  summer  than  when  they  started,  that  their  passages  were 
paid  by  their  more  fortunate,  thou  still  poor,  companions. 
Thus,  book  debts  to  tradesmen  which  would  have  been  paid 
in  whole  or  in  part  with  the  summer’s  earnings,  were  not  met 
at  all,  and  credit — the  fabric,  almost  baseless,  upon  which 
this  light-hearted,  sanguine  people  have  lived  for  years — 
collapsed.” 

The  Times  gave  the  following  letter  from 
the  Duchess  of  Marlborough’s  Committee  in 
March,  also  : — 

“ The  normal  state  of  the  peasantry  of  the  wild  parts  of 
the  west  appears  to  be , an  almost  utter  want  of  clothing 
except  coarse  rags,  and  of  covering  except  old  sacks. 
Major  Gaskell  mentions  in  his  report  that  he  hardly  ever 
saw  in  Donegal  such  a thing  as  bed-clothes.  People  were 
all  lying  on  heaps  of  straw,  their  only  covering  being  some 
old  bags.  In  Clare,  Captain  Fletcher,  another  inspector, 
says  the  same,  and  that  any  kind  of  rough  material  fit  for 
bed-covering  would  be  an  enormous  boon.  Thousands  of 
children  all  through  the  country  have  been  kept  from  school 

X 


354 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


by  want  of  clothes,  and  are  described  very  much  as  Zulu 
children.  In  the  islands,  the  case  is  still  worse,  some  of  the 
people  being  described  as  perfectly  naked,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  an  old  rag  or  shawl  about  them.” 

When,  according  to  the  Duchess  of  Marl- 
borough’s report,  the  normal  state  of  the  west 
of  Ireland  was  such,  what  must  it  not  have 
been  when  the  only  crop  failed  ? And,  I know, 
that  in  many  parts  of  Kerry  the  normal  state  of 
the  poor  is  the  same. 

“ At  the  annual  dinner  of  the  Geographical  Society,  which 
was  held  June  i,  1880,  his  Royal  Highness,  the  Duke  of 
Edinburgh,  who  presided,  spoke  as  follows  on  the  subject 
of  Irish  distress  : — 

“ ‘Your  Excellencies,  my  Lords  and  Gentlemen — I thank 
you  most  heartily  for  the  kind  manner  in  which  you  have 
drank  my  health.  I am  deeply  sensible  of  the  kind  expres- 
sions used  with  regard  to  what  I have  been  lately  doing  on 
the  coast  of  Ireland,  and  I will  take  this  opportunity  of  say- 
ing a few  words  on  that  subject.  It  has  been  believed  by 
many  that  the  extent  of  the  distress  on  the  west  coast  of 
Ireland  is  greatly  exaggerated  ; that  the  relief  administered 
has  not  in  all  cases  been  necessary  ; but  I can  confidently 
state,  as  the  result  of  what  I have  seen,  and  from  an  intimate 
knowledge  of  how  the  relief  has  been  granted,  that  the  dis- 
tress in  the  main  has  not  been  exaggerated.  It  has  been  excessively 
severe , and  that  it  has  not  reached  the  point  it  reached  at  the 
time  known  as  the  “ Irish  Famine ,”  is  due  entirely  to  the  fact 
THAT  PREPARATIONS  FOR  MEETING  IT  HAD  BEEN  TAKEN  IN 
time.  I cannot  refrain  from  expressing  my  sense  of  how 


Sentimental  Grievances. 


355 


much  that  taking  in  time  was  due  to  the  charitable  exertions 
of  the  Duchess  of  Marlborough.  It  has  been  a great  plea- 
sure to  me  to  be  associated  with  her  Grace,  as  well  as  with 
many  others  in  this  beneficent  work. 

“ 1 We  have  also  to  thank  the  citizens  of  America  for  the  great 
and  generous  help  they  have  sent  to  Ireland  (cheers).  It  was 
my  good  fortune  to  be  able  to  be  at  Queenstown  to  assist  in 
the  distribution  of  that  magnificent  cargo  which  was  sent 
from  America  (cheers).  I must  say  that  the  distress  is 
not  over  yet,  nor  will  it  be  over  for  at  least  two  months  and 
a half  when  the  first  crop — the  potato  crop — will  be  gathered 
and  is  followed  by  the  general  harvest.  Until  then,  in  many 
cases,  actual  relief  by  feeding  the  population  in  some  portions 
of  the  west  of  Ireland,  including  the  islands,  must  be  con- 
tinued. Otherwise  the  starvation  which  would  have  occurred 
in  the  first  instance  but  for  such  relief  will  occur  ; yet  I hope 
all  those  who  are  here  this  evening  will  bear  in  mind,  and 
tell  others  who  are  charitably  inclined,  that  the  time  has  not 
yet  passed  when  much  good  may  be  done  by  sending  sub- 
scriptions to  those  great  funds  which  have  already  done  so 
much  to  relieve  the  distress.’” 

And  yet,  in  the  face  of  this  statement,  there 
certainly  was  no  warmth  in  the  efforts  made  to 
relieve  the  distress,  and  none  of  that  cordial 
giving  which  might  have  been  expected. 

It  was,  indeed,  from  the  Irish  in  America, 
in  Australia,  and  in  India,  that  the  most  sums 
of  money  came  which  saved  the  people  from 
death  by  starvation, 

A Protestant  clergyman  said  : — 


356 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


“ There  are  whole  townlands  absolutely  depending  upon 
the  meal  supplied  by  the  Moylough  committee,  but  for 
which  the  people  would  be  in  dire  starvation.” 

Dr.  Dickinson  having  made  the  false  charge, 

“ That  nine-tenths  of  the  poverty  was  caused  by  the 
drunken  habits  of  the  people,  political  agitators,  and 
idleness,” 

Dr.  Sigerson  replied  — 

“ It  was  my  duty,  in  company  with  Dr.  Kenny,  to  make 
a careful  investigation  into  the  condition  of  the  people  of  the 
western  province,  from  its  northern  to  its  southern  boundary. 
Having  thus  become  intimately  acquainted  with  the  domestic 
circumstances  of  the  inhabitants  in  widely  varied  districts, 
and  attentively  observed  their  conduct  everywhere,  I declare 
that  it  gives  a shock  to  the  moral  sense,  as  of  an  outrage 
committed,  to  hear  idleness  and  drunkenness  imputed  to 
them  as  the  causes  of  their  poverty.  Nowhere  have  I seen, 
not  even  in  France,  a population  more  free  from  any  sign 
of  intemperance,  more  generally  and  thoroughly  sober. 
During  a month  spent  entirely  amongst  the  people,  in  the 
wildest  parts  of  Connaught,  I have  never  heard  a discourt- 
eous word,  nor  seen  a drunken  man.  The  solitary  exception 
to  the  rule,  so  far  as  the  last  element  is  concerned,  happened 
in  a town  where  assizes  were  being  held.  In  the  rural  dis- 
tricts, even  in  those  houses  where  fever-stricken  patients  so 
much  required  them,  no  stimulants  were  to  be  found  in  the 
homes  of  the  peasantry.” 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


INDIA  AND  IRELAND. — POLITICAL  ECONOMY  IN 
IRELAND. 


“We  think  we  are  the  only  good  colonists  in  the  world  ; on  the  con- 
trary, we  cannot  train  or  teach  ; we  can  only  multiply  and  spread.  . . . 
We  have  developed  India  for  the  usurer,  Ireland  for  the  landlord,  other 
parts  of  the  world  for  the  Manchester  man,  or  the  London  man,  or  the 
outside  man  generally,  not  for  and  by  the  native.” — Far  Out , Colonel 
W.  J.  Butler. 

T is,  I think,  the  great  misfortune  of  all 
English  colonial  government  that  her 
colonies  are  treated  as  places  out  of 
which  all  that  is  possible  is  to  be  got,  and  to  which 
as  little  as  possible  is  to  be  given.  Ireland  is  by  no 
means  the  only  colony  under  British  Government 
which  has  met  with  this  fate.  The  further  the 
colony  is  from  England,  the  better  chance  there 
is  of  its  being  allowed  to  prosper.  If  Ireland 
were  as  far  from  England  as  Australia,  it  would 
be  in  a happier  condition.  Yet  there  are  Eng- 
lishmen who  are  not  without  some  gleaming  of 
this  painful  truth,  as  the  extract  given  above 
will  sufficiently  show.  This  policy  Is  neither 


35  8 The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 

wise  nor  honourable.  It  must  end  inevitably  in 
failure  and  disgrace. 

I believe  it  arises  from  two  causes.  First, 
from  the  natural  desire  of  the  human  heart  to 
- possess  wealth  and  power ; the  consequence, 
where  this  desire  is  given  no  check,  either  by 
law  or  public  opinion,  must  inevitably  be  a 
system  of  petty  tyranny  and  unjust  government. 
The  second  cause  from  which  this  evil  arises, 
or  rather,  perhaps,  I should  say,  which  occasions 
its  continuance,  is  the  excessive  pride  which 
the  English  have  in  their  own  form  of  Govern- 
ment. 

When  the  English  people  hear  that  injustice 
is  done  in  any  dependency  they  will  not  believe 
it.  When  they  hear  that  a colony  is  discontented 
and  living  in  smouldering  rebellion,  they,  without 
further  inquiry,  are  certain  it  is  the  fault  of  the 
people.  Would  it  not  be  wiser,  as  well  as  more 
in  accordance  with  justice,  to  be  willing  to 
inquire  calmly  and  dispassionately  ? 

Not  long  since,  a writer  in  the  Commune 
said,  the  Englishman  was  the  subject  of  the 
Queen,  and  the  Irishman  was  the  subject  of  the 
Englishman.  Never  was  there  a truer  saying. 
Ireland  virtually  is  not  governed  by  the  Queen  ; 
it  is  governed  by  English,  or  Anglo-Irish  lords, 
who  scarcely  care  to  conceal  their  contempt  for 


Political  Economy  in  Ireland.  359 

the  people,  or  for  their  religion — who  treated 
them  with  most  persistent  cruelty  until  the 
world  cried  shame  on  them. 

Never  was  there  a more  loyal  race  than  the 
Irish,  and  never  was  there  a people  more  per- 
sistently accused  of  disloyalty.  The  reason  is 
not  far  to  seek.  You  cannot  expect  a people  to 
be  loyal  to  a form  of  government  which  allows 
them  to  be  oppressed,  which  persistently  re- 
fuses to  hear  their  complaints,  and  which  will 
only  believe  the  word  of  those  who  oppress 
them.  It  is  less  trouble  certainly,  for  the  pre- 
sent, to  take  things  for  granted  and  to  believe 
one  side  only. 

It  cost  three  millions  of  money  to  have  the 
Queen  proclaimed  in  India  by  the  empty  title 
of  Empress.  If  she  had  signalized  her  reign 
in  Ireland  by  some  great  act  of  beneficence,  such 
as  ancient  monarchs  would  have  done,  by  re- 
claiming waste  lands,  and  planting  on  them  a 
happy  and  grateful  people,  she  might  have  been 
proclaimed  Empress  of  the  hearts  of  the  people 
at  one-half  the  cost,  and  undoubtedly  her  name 
would  have  descended  to  posterity  with  far 
more  glorious  fame. 

The  great  Anglo-Irish  lords,  and  the  great 
Anglo-Indian  lords  have  acted  on  a uniformity 
of  principle,  or  of  want  of  principle,  producing 


360  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

a uniformity  of  results,  which  might  well  give 
cause  for  serious  reflection. 

No  doubt  they  are  all  honourable  men  (in 
England)  but  in  India  and  in  Ireland  how  differ- 
ently they  act.  Take  for  example  in  Ireland  the 
case  of  one  territorial  lord,  the  Duke  of  Leinster, 
through  all  whose  vast  property  of  68,000  acres, 
no  one,  be  he  peer  or  peasant,  can  obtain  pos- 
session of  a farm  unless  he  signs  the  Leinster 
lease,  and  contracts  himself  out  of  the  benefit  of 
the  Land  Act.  Yet  we  are  perpetually  told 
that  Ireland  is  governed  by  the  same  laws  as 
England.  Here  is  yet  another  evidence  that 
while  England  is  governed  by  the  Queen,  Ire- 
land is  governed  by  Englishmen.  Here  is 
another  evidence  of  that  wonderful  freedom  of 
contract  of  which  we  hear  so  much,  and  of  which 
we  see  so  little.  Here  is  an  explanation  of  the 
wild  letters  of  the  Times  and  the  Standard  and 
the  Daily  Telegraph  about  Irish  outrages,  and 
the  wonderful  benefits  conferred  on  Irish  tenants 
by  their  landlords.  These  landlords  naturally 
wish  to  continue  the  exercise  of  their  arbitrary 
and  despotic  power.  Hence  their  cries  when 
they  find  this  imperium  in  imperio  threatened. 

The  Very  Rev.  Dr.  Walsh,  President  of 
Maynooth  College,  has  written  on  this  subject 
fully  to  the  Freemans  Journal , and  has  happily 


Political  Economy  in  Ireland,  36 1 


given  evidence  also  before  the  Land  Commis- 
sion. When  gentlemen  could  meet  with  such 
treatment,  what  can  the  poor  expect? 

“ 1.  My  evidence  regarded  chiefly,  I may  say  almost  exclu- 
sively, the  case  of  this  college  and  the  eviction  of  its  trustees 
from  their  college  farm  of  Laraghbryan,  as  an  illustration  of 
the  peculiar  view  of  landlord  rights  held  by  his  Grace  the 
present  Duke  of  Leinster.  The  trustees  of  Maynooth — that 
is  to  say,  the  four  archbishops  and  twelve  of  the  bishops  of 
Ireland — were  evicted  from  their  holding  because,  though 
consenting  under  compulsion  to  pay  the  increased  rent  de- 
manded, they  could  not  consent  to  sign  the  form  of  agree- 
ment unhappily  known  as  the  ‘ Leinster’  Lease.  I need 
not  burden  your  columns  with  a detailed  statement  of  the 
ingenious  devices  embodied  in  this  document  for  practically 
abrogating,  so  far  as  it  was  possible  for  legal  ingenuity  to 
do  so,  the  provisions,  inadequate  as  they  were,  of  the  Land 
Act  of  1870.  But  I think  it  right  to  state  that  I hold  in 
my  possession  a letter  from  his  Grace’s  agent  to  the  secre- 
tary of  the  Maynooth  trustees,  in  which  the  agent  expresses 
his  opinion  that  there  must  be  ‘some  misapprehension  on 
the  part  of  the  trustees  as  to  the  terms  of  the  lease,’  inas- 
much as  it  was  a strictly  legal  document,  and  had,  in  fact, 
been  drawn  by  two  Queen’s  counsel  expressly  ‘to  meet  the 
^provisions  of  the  Land  Act  of  1870.’  In  my  evidence,  it  is 
hardly  necessary  to  add,  I brought  this  noteworthy  state- 
ment under  the  consideration  of  the  Commissioners.  I 
trust  that  the  disclosure  of  it  may  lead  the  Ministry,  who 
are  now  responsible  for  the  Government  of  this  country, 
to  see  that  it  is  a hopeless  task  to  attempt  to  meet  the 
difficulties  of  the  great  crisis  that  is  before  them  if  they 
confine  themselves  to  the  framing  of  a Land  Act,  the  pro- 


362  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

visions  of  which  can  be  ‘met,’  that  is  to  say,  evaded  and 
neutralised,  by  the  ingenuity  of  counsel,  however  learned 
in  the  law. 

“ 2.  In  the  second  place  I felt  called  upon  to  put  before 
the  Commissioners,  as  also  illustrated  by  the  dealings  in 
connection  with  the  Leinster  Lease,  another  main  source 
of  the  now  admitted  failure  of  the  Land  Act  of  1870.  The 
Act  went  upon  the  supposition  that  tenants  of  holdings 
valued  above  ^50  a year  enjoy  ‘ freedom  of  contract,’  and 
should  therefore  be  left  without  legal  protection.  There  is 
an  obvious  fallacy  in  this.  ‘ Freedom  of  contract,’  no  doubt, 
exists  to  this  extent — that  the  persons  in  question  are 
rational  beings,  with  full  liberty  of  action,  and,  it  may  be 
conceded,  notwithstanding  the  difficulties  of  their  position, 
in  the  undisturbed  possession  of  their  faculties,  so  that  they 
fully  comprehend  the  nature  of  the  contract  into  which 
they  are  called  upon  to  enter.  But  in  any  other  sense 
‘freedom  of  contract’  is  for  them  an  empty  name.  The 
possession  of  a farm  may  be  for  such  a tenant  a sine  qua  non 
of  decent  subsistence.  It  may  even  be  his  only  means  of 
livelihood  outside  the  walls  of  a workhouse.  But  on  the 
Duke  of  Leinster’s  estate  of  68,000  acres  he  cannot  obtain 
a farm  of  any  size,  however  small,  at  any  rent,  however 
exorbitant,  without  signing  the  ‘ Leinster’  Lease.  Is  it  any 
wonder  that  an  Act  should  to  so  large  an  extent  have 
broken  down  which  went  upon  the  theory  that  in  such  cases 
‘freedom  of  contract’  existed  in  any  sense  worthy  of  the 
name?  Our  trustees  exercised  their  ‘freedom’  by  stead- 
fastly refusing,  as  in  the  interest  of  the  tenant  farmers  of 
Ireland  they  were  surely  bound  to  refuse,  to  sanction  by 
their  signature  the  ‘ Leinster’  Lease.  The  result  was  eviction. 
Let  us  hope  that  the  official  statement  of  this  transaction, 
which  will  soon  be  placed  before  Parliament  in  the  report 
of  the  Commission,  will  have  the  effect  of  convincing  the 


Political  Economy  in  Ireland.  363 

Legislature  that  a ‘freedom  of  contract ’ which  can  be  exer- 
cised only  under  a penalty  that  for  a tenant  farmer  means 
absolute  ruin,  is  not  again  to  be  relied  upon  as  a plea  for 
the  insertion  in  a Land  Act  of  clauses  enabling  any  landlord 
in  Ireland  to  coerce  his  tenants  into  a forfeiture  of  the  rights 
to  which  Parliament  considers  them  entitled. 

“ 3.  I did  not  fail  to  explain  to  the  Commission  that  the 
proceedings  which  resulted  in  the  eviction  of  the  trustees 
had  their  origin  in  a demand  made  in  1877  for  an  increase 
of  rent — the  rent  demanded  being  determined  merely  by  a 
valuation  of  the  land  as  it  then  stood.  Until  after  repeated 
pleadings,  as  if  mercy,  and  not  justice,  were  in  question,  no 
allowance  was  made  for  the  numerous  and  costly  improve- 
ments which  had  been  effected  by  the  College  during  the 
lifetime  of  the  late  Duke,  and  in  implicit  reliance  on  the 
good  faith  of  the  house  of  Leinster.  The  extraordinary  and 
all  but  incredible  circumstances  of  this  valuation  are  detailed 
in  my  evidence.  I shall  merely  mention  here  that  the 
hesitation  of  the  College  authorities  to  accede  to  a demand 
manifestly  unjustifiable  was  described  by  the  Duke’s  agent 
as  an  unwillingness  on  the  part  of  the  bishops  to  pay  a fair 
rent  to  the  landlord  !” 

Just  so.  It  is  so  easy  to  say  when  there  is 
question  of  the  frequency  of  eviction  in  Ireland 
and  of  refusal  to  pay  rent,  that  the  unhapoy 
victim  of  landlord  cupidity  would  not  pay  his 
rent.  No  one  cares  to  inquire  whether  would 
not,  should  be  could  not;  and  English  gentle- 
men exclaim  in  indignant  amazement  at  these 
wicked  Irish  who  repudiate  their  just  debts. 
Let  us  hope  that  they  will  yet  exclaim  in 


364 


The  Case  of  Ireland  staled. 


indignant  wrath  at  those  noble  landlords  who 
have  thoqght  it  scorn  to  abide  by  English  law 
where  their  Irish  tenants  were  concerned. 

It  is  to  be  wished,  indeed,  that  Dr.  Walsh’s 
letter  might  be  circulated  from  end  to  end  of 
the  British  dominions.  But  since  this  is  scarcely 
probable,  I give  another  extract  of  considerable 
length. 

“4.  No  better  illustration  could  be  found  than  is  thus 
presented  of  the  truth  of  a statement  which  is  very  com- 
monly put  forward,  but  in  an  entirely  opposite  sense,  by 
many  opponents  of  the  tenants’  claims — that  ‘ Griffith’s,’ 
that  is  to  say,  the  Government  valuation,  is  not  a fair  stan- 
dard for  rent.  Mr.  Murrough  O’Brien  in  an  interesting 
paper  in  the  ‘ Journal  of  the  Statistical  Society  of  Ireland,’ 
(July,  1878),  lays  down  this  thesis  : — * The  public  valuation 
is  no  guide  to  the  fair  rent  between  landlord  and  tenant ; 
and  this  should  be  expressly  stated  in  any  future  Valuation 
Act.’  And  why?  Is  it  because  the  valuation  is,  as  we  are 
so  frequently  informed,  25  or  30  per  cent,  below  the  fair 
value  of  the  land?  Not  at  all.  But  for  a very  different 
reason,  which,  strange  to  say,  obvious  as  it  is,  seems 
altogether  to  have  escaped  the  attention  of  many  who 
should  be  deeply  interested  in  giving  prominence  to  it. 
The  reason  is  thus  stated  by  Dr.  Neilson  Hancock.  In 
1852,  when  the  valuation  was  made,  the  tenant’s  claim  to 
his  property,  at  all  events  in  the  improvements  effected  by 
him,  which  has  since  been  recognised  by  the  Land  Act  of 
1870,  was  ignored.  The  valuation,  then,  was  made — fairly 
enough  for  the  purposes  for  which  it  was  intended,  as  a basis 
of  taxation — by  taking  the  value  of  the  land  as  it  stood. 


Political  Economy  in  Ireland. 


365 


But,  as  the  Act  of  1870  has  since  declared,  the  property 
thus  valued  was  in  reality  the  property  of  two  distinct 
owners.  There  was  the  property  of  the  tenant  in  his  im- 
provements, as  well  as  the  property  o'f  the  landlord  in  the 
soil.  Each  was  a valuable  property,  and  was  therefore  no 
doubt  justly  liable  to  taxation.  But  taxation  is  one  thing, 
and  rent  is  another.  And  as  Dr.  Hancock  puts  it,  in  his 
paper  in  the  Fortnightly  Review , of  last  January  : — 

“ The  Irish  tenement  or  Government  valuation  of  1852  is  not  fitted  to 
determine  a fair  rent,  or  rent  on  scientific  principles,  for  the  obvious 
reason  that  the  legal  ownership  of  improvements  was  unsettled  in  1852. 
The  valuation  includes  all  farm  buildings,  and  certain  specific  tenants’ 
improvements,  if  made  more  than  seven  years  before  valuation  or  re- 
vision, and  includes  other  tenants’  improvements.  If  the  valuation 
were  revised  up  to  date,  on  the  existing  principles  of  the  Act,  and  were 
right  in  other  respects,  it  would,  if  taken  as  a conclusive  guide,  lead  to 
a demand  for  rent  that  would  confiscate  the  tenants’  improvements.  ” 

“ I trust  that  my  evidence  may  have  the  effect  in  calling 
more  attention  to  this  important  aspect  of  the  Government 
valuation  of  land  in  Ireland,  than,  somehow,  it  has  hitherto 
attracted.  I refer  to  the  matter  now,  merely  for  the  purpose 
of  noting  that  the  method  adopted  on  the  Leinster  estate 
in  1877  to  determine  the  rent  to  be  paid  for  our  college 
farm  was  that  which  is  thus  described,  in  a calm  statistical 
essay  by  a very  deliberate  writer,  as  ‘ confiscation.’ 

“ 5.  There  is  but  one  other  section  of  my  evidence  to 
which  I think  it  of  any  present  advantage  to  ask  you  to  give 
publicity.  I thought  it  right  to  call  the  attention  of  the 
Commissioners  to  some  incidents  of  the  debates  in  Parlia- 
ment of  1870,  on  the  Land  Act  of  that  year.  They  go  to 
show  how  necessary  it  is  that  evidence,  copious  and  un- 
assailable, as  to  the  dealings  that  have  taken  place  in  Ireland 
between  landlord  and  tenant,  even  since  the  passing  of  that 
Act,  should  be  placed  before  Parliament  if  we  wish  the 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


366 

Legislature  to  deal  with  this  great  question  of  the  Irish  land 
in  a way  that  can  be  regarded  even  as  a temporary  settle- 
ment of  the  difficulty,  i will  ask  you  to  reproduce  two  of 
the  passages  to  which  I thus  referred.  In  one  of  the  de- 
bates in  committee  of  the  House  of  Commons,  a motion 
was  made  to  exempt  all  ‘ leaseholders’  from  the  benefit  of 
the  compensation  clauses.  And  when  Mr.  Gladstone  re- 
sisted the  proposal  on  the  ground  that  in  this  way  ‘ a lease 
for  a year  and  a day’  might  be  made  a bar  to  compensation, 
an  eminent  Conservative  statesman  who  had  previously  been 
a member  of  three  Ministries,  each  time  with  a seat  in  the 
Cabinet,  and  who  was  subsequently  a Cabinet  Minister  in 
the  late  Conservative  Administration,  protested  against  Mr. 
Gladstone’s  argument,  declaring  that  he  wished — 

To  say  a word  in  favour  of  the  common  sense  and  understanding  of 
the  Irish  people.  If  the  tenantry  of  Ireland  were  offered  leases  for  a 
year-and-a-day  they  would  refuse  them.  The  tendency  of  Parliament 
to  legislate  as  if  the  people  of  Ireland  were  a set  of  the  most  incapable 
and  helpless  savages  was  to  him  a matter  of  regret  and  astonishment. 
To  say  that  the  tenantry  would  be  compelled  to  accept  leases  for  a-year- 
and-a-day,  or  any  such  term,  was  to  impose  upon  the  credulity  of  the 
Committee — (“  Hansard,”  vol.  200,  p.  1070). 

“ Now  the  “ Leinster  Lease,”  which  I had  the  honour  of 
laying  before  the  Royal  Commission  on  Monday,  as  the 
document  sent  by  his  Grace’s  agent,  for  the  signature  of  our 
trustees,  is  a lease  ‘ from  year  to  year.’  Is  it  too  much  to 
hope  that  the  noble  lord,  whose  words  I have  just  quoted, 
will  express  his  opinion  of  it,  when  it  comes  under  the  notice 
of  Parliament,  in  words  no  less  emphatic  than  those  in  which 
he  ridiculed — as  unworthy  of  the  serious  attention  of  the 
House — the  idea  that  such  a lease  could  be  forced  by  any 
Irish  landlord  upon  the  acceptance  of  any  body  of  Irish 
tenants? 


Political  Economy  in  Ireland.  367 


u Another  extract  and  I shall  bring  to  a close  this  long 
demand  upon  your  space.  In  a debate  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  when  it  was  proposed  to  exclude  from  the  benefits  of 
the  Act  all  tenants  the  valuation  of  whose  holdings  was  over 
a year,  Lord  Cairns  supported  the  motion  of  the  peer, 
Lord  Bessborough — the  brother  of  the  Chairman  of  the  pre- 
sent Commission — whose  proposal  was,  that  no  such  limit 
should  be  placed.  In  his  speech  on  that  occasion,  Lord 
Cairns  assured  the  House  that — 

He  regarded  the  question  simply  as  a theoretical  one.  Everybody 
acquainted  with  Ireland  would  bear  him  out  in  saying,  that  the  idea  of 
ejecting  a tenant  in  that  country  at  upwards  of  ^50,  as  long  as  he  paid 
his  rent,  never  entered  into  the  mind  of  any  Irish  landlord.  Therefore, 
to  provide  for  consequences  that  were  to  happen  on  the  hypothesis  that 
a tenant  paying  ^'50  rent  was  evicted  capriciously — was  providing  for 
an  event  that  never  had  occurred  and  never  would  occur — (“  Hansard,” 
vol.  202,  p.  1443). 

“ The  evidence  in  the  Blue  Book  of  the  Commission  will, 
no  doubt,  change  Lord  Cairns’  views  on  this  subject,  at 
least  so  far  as  the  Leinster  estate  is  concerned.  Will  it 
induce  him  to  contribute  the  aid  of  his  powerful  advocacy 
in  convincing  his  brother  peers  of  their  duty  to  concur  in 
the  enactment  of  such  legislation  as  will  make  it  impossible 
that  such  things  can  again  occur  in  Ireland?” 

No  wonder,  then,  that  the  Irish  nation  should 
ask  that  what  is  being  done  in  India  and  what 
has  been  done  in  the  western  provinces  of 
Portugal  should  be  done  for  Ireland.  We 
frequently  hear  Irish  landlords  declaring  that 
they  are  the  best  friends  of  their  tenants ; that 
their  tenants  believe  so,  if  they  were  not  dis- 


368  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

turbed  by  “ agitators.”  What  folly!  It  is  a 
folly  they  can  scarcely  believe  themselves  ; but 
which,  unhappily,  they  can  persuade  others 
to  believe.  An  agitator  who  had  not  cause  for 
his  agitation  never  yet  obtained  a continuous 
hearing.  Ireland  has  been  for  centuries  the 
land  of  agitators ; but  only  because  England 
is  so  slow  and  so  niggard  in  hearing  and  help- 
ing the  cause  of  an  oppressed  people.  And 
yet,  I do  not  blame  all  Englishmen.  The  truth 
has  been  hidden  from  the  honest  multitude  by 
the  dishonest  few. 

The  fact  that  every  colony  under  English 
government  has  serious  cause  of  complaint 
should  surely  open  the  eyes  of  the  masses  to 
the  truth.  Far  from  being  indignant,  because 
the  Irish  speak  hardly  of  English  injustice ; 
they  should  rather  speak  hardly  of  those  who 
have  caused  the  name  of  England  to  be  sullied 
in  the  mire  of  their  own  greed  and  selfishness. 
The  ryot  in  India — the  peasant  farmer  in  Ire- 
land— had  precisely  the  same  cause  of  complaint 
— a continued  oppressive  system  of  exaction  on 
the  part  of  the  landlords,  who  represent  English 
government,  and  who  are,  therefore,  solely 
responsible  for  the  ill  name  which  England  has 
got.  What  millions  of  money  have  been  ex- 
pended ! what  torrents  of  blood  have  flowed  ! 


Political  Economy  in  Ireland.  369 

in  order  to  keep  up  a system  of  persistent  in- 
justice. How  long  was  it  before  the  masses  in 
England  could  be  got  to  see  the  injustice  of  the 
slave  trade,  and  how  very  soon  the  iniquity  was 
abolished  when  they  did  know  it. 

There  is  the  strongest  possible  analogy 
between  India  and  Ireland — the  population  of 
both  are  agricultural,  and  both  are  conquered 
countries,  the  inhabitants  of  which  have  always 
been  looked  down  upon  as  socially  inferior  to 
the  English  people. 

The  conquerors  were  masters  of  the  land,  and 
a few  of  the  natives  who  assisted  the  conquerors 
were  allowed  some  little  share  of  authority  ; but 
these  latter  were  obliged  to  pay  the  Govern- 
ment a certain  revenue,  which  they  extracted 
sometimes  with  torture  and  unheard  of  cruelty 
from  the  ryots , who  were  a class  corresponding 
with  the  Irish  peasant  or  tenant  farmer. 

This  was  the  ryots’  rent,  upon  which,  after 
paying  the  revenue,  the  zemindar  or  landlord 
had  a good  profit.  But  the  zemindars  quickly 
broke  through  the  prescribed  sums  to  be  levied, 
and  while  they  paid  only  as  much  as  the 
Government  stipulated,  in  the  first  instance, 
they  extorted  from  the  unfortunate  slave,  the 
ryot,  as  much  as  they  wished.  The  ryots  thus 
became  the  most  rack-rented  people  on  the  face 


37°  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated, 

of  the  habitable  globe ; and  so  they  remained 
to  the  present  hour.  It  is  calculated  that  the 
yearly  income  of  the  zemindars  of  India  has 
swelled  under  this  nefarious  system  from 
,£750,000,  which  it  was  worth  in  the  beginning, 
to  at  least  £10,000,000.  Now,  if  we  change 
the  names  ; if  we  read  for  zemindar  Irish  land- 
lord, for  ryot  of  Bengal  peasant  of  Galway,  we 
have  a strict  parallel  between  Ireland  and 
India. 

But  the  Government  report  on  the  state  of 
India  is  of  so  remarkable  a character,  that  we 
give  an  extract  from  it  here  of  considerable 
length. 

The  report  runs  thus  : — 

“ Report  to  Her  Majesty’s  Secretary  of  State  on 
the  Condition  of  India 

£ 3 St.  James’s-square,  31^  October , 1879. 

“ My  Lord, — In  the  letter  of  Lord  Salisbury  to  the  Home 
Secretary,  in  reference  to  my  appointment  as  a member  of 
the  Famine  Commission,  he  said  that  (apart  from  my  special 
duties  as  a member  of  that  Commission)  advantage  to  the 
Indian  cultivator  might  be  anticipated  from  my  inquiries, 
and  from  the  advice  which  I should  be  in  a position  to 
tender  to  the  Government.  It  is,  therefore,  my  duty  to 
place  before  your  lordship  the  views  which  I have  formed  in 
regard  to  the  condition  of  the  vast  population  of  these 
countries  for  which  we  have  made  ourselves  responsible. 


Political  Economy  in  Ireland. 


371 


“ The  available  good  land  in  India  is  nearly  all  occupied. 
There  are  extensive  areas  of  good  waste  land,  covered  with 
jungle,  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  which  might  be  re- 
claimed and  rendered  suitable  for  cultivation,  but  for  that 
object  capital  must  be  employed,  and  the  people  have  little 
to  spare.  The  produce  of  the  country  on  an  average  of 
years  is  barely  sufficient  to  maintain  the  present  population 
and  make  a saving  for  occasional  famine.  The  greatest  ex- 
port of  rice  and  corn  in  one  year  is  not  more  than  ten  days’ 
consumption  of  its  inhabitants.  Scarcity,  deepening  into 
famine,  is  thus  becoming  of  more  frequent  occurrence. 
The  people  may  be  assumed  to  increase  at  the  moderate 
rate  of  one  per  cent,  per  year.  The  check  caused  by  the 
late  famine,  through  five  million  of  extra  deaths,  spread  as 
it  was  over  two  years  and  a half,  would  thus  be  equal  only 
to  the  normal  increase  over  all  India  for  that  time.  In  ten 
years,  at  the  present  rate  of  growth,  there  will  be  twenty 
million  more  people  to  feed,  in  twenty  years  upwards  of  forty 
millions.  This  must  be  met  by  an  increase  of  produce, 
arising  from  better  management  of  the  cultivated  area,  and 
enlargement  of  its  extent  by  migration  to  unpeopled  dis- 
tricts, and  by  emigration  to  other  countries.  We  are  deal- 
ing with  a country  already  full  of  people,  whose  habits  and 
religion  promote  increase  without  restraint,  and  whose  law 
directs  the  sub-division  of  land  among  all  the  male  children. 
As  rulers,  we  are  thus  brought  face  to  face  with  a growing 
difficulty.  There  are  more  people  every  year  to  feed  from 
land  which,  in  many  parts  of  India,  is  undergoing  gradual 
deterioration.  Of  this  there  can  be  no  stronger  proof  than 
the  land  revenue  in  some  quarters  is  diminishing.  It  is  un- 
safe to  break  up  more  of  the  uncultivated  poor  land.  The 
diminution  of  pasture  thereby  already  caused,  is  showing  its 
effect  in  a lessening  proportion  of  working  cattle  for  an  in- 
creasing area  of  cultivation. 


372  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 

“The  pressure  on  the  means  of  subsistence  is  rendered  more 
severe  by  the  moral  disorganisation  produced  by  laws,  affect- 
ing property  and  debt,  not  adapted  to  the  condition  of  the 
people.  In  most  parts  of  India,  as  shown  by  the  late  pro- 
ceedings in  the  Legislative  Council  on  the  Deccan  Ryots 
Relief  Bill,  and  as  is  plain  to  any  careful  observer  in  the 
country,  the  people  are  not  only  dissatisfied  with  our  legal 
system,  but,  while  the  creditor  is  not  much  enriched,  the 
debtor  is  being  impoverished  by  it.  Those  British  officials 
who  see  this,  feel  themselves  powerless  to  influence  a central 
authority  far  removed  from  them,  subject  to  no  control  of 
public  opinion,  and  over-burdened  with  details  with  which  it 
is  incapable  of  dealing. 

“We  have  introduced  a system  the  first  object  of  which, 
for  a Foreign  Government,  is  necessarily  the  subjection  of 
the  people.  This  is  rendered  possible  by  the  religious  dif- 
ference between  the  Hindoos  and  Mahommedans  which 
prevents  their  union  against  us,  and  they  are  in  such  pro- 
portions that  the  larger  number  of  the  first  prevents  the 
more  warlike  character  of  the  second  assuming  predominance. 
We  are  accepted  as  the  arbiters  of  justice  to  both,  and  the 
protectors  of  the  weak  against  the  strong.  A handful  of 
Englishmen  could  not  hold  these  multitudes  on  any  other 
principle.  The  strength  we  wield  is  a powerful  army,  now 
by  the  aid  of  railway  and  telegraph  capable  of  rapid  concen- 
tration on  any  threatened  point  And  we  govern  through 
British  officers  stationed  in  every  district  of  the  country, 
who,  under  the  supervision  of  the  respective  Governments, 
administer  the  law,  command  the  police,  and  superintend 
the  collection  of  the  revenue.  Native  officers  are  employed 
under  them,  both  in  the  Judicial  and  Revenue  Departments, 
in  large  numbers,  to  whom  the  drudgery  of  government  is 
committed.  The  whole  number  of  such  officers,  not  reckon- 
ing the  Native  army  or  police,  is  not  more  than  one  in  ten 


Political  Economy  in  Ireland.  373 

thousand  people.  The  English  officers  are  not  one  in  two 
hundred  thousand,  strangers  in  language,  religion,  and 
colour,  with  feelings  and  ideas  quite  different  from  theirs, 
and  enforcing  a system  of  law,  the  justice  of  which  they  are 
slow  to  comprehend,  while  its  costliness  and  delay  are  mani- 
fest. 

“ By  our  centralising  system  we  have  drifted  away  from  the 
patriarchal  method  of  rule  common  in  the  East,  where  the 
populations  are  agricultural  and  dense,  under  which  the 
management  of  the  people  is  left  to  their  natural  leaders, 
the  head  men  of  the  villages,  hereditary  or  elected  by  the 
people,  who  are  recognised  by  the  community,  and  who  ad- 
minister justice  and  preserve  order,  and  are  responsible  for 
the  public  revenue.  We  have  superseded  this  by  discredit- 
ing the  head  men,  and  in  Madras  and  Bombay  by  an  attempt 
to  bring  millions  of  small  landholders  into  direct  contact 
with  the  Government,  through  Native  officials  of  a low  type 
(for  the  higher  class  of  officers  rarely  have  time  to  see  them), 
and  with  a theory  that  our  European  officers,  so  few  in  num- 
ber, will  be  able  personally  to  supervise  this  arrangement, 
which  is  physically  impossible.  The  head  men,  no  longer 
recognise  or  treated  as  leaders,  and  seldom  communicated 
with,  except  through  the  lower  class  of  Native  officials  (who 
are  said  to  be  apt  to  take  advantage  of  their  position  to  ex- 
tort bribes),  become  distrustful  to  us,  and  are  distrusted  by 
us.  I rarely  met  a civilian  in  India  who  did  not  speak  of 
the  head  men  with  distrust.  The  British  merchants  who 
carry  on  their  great  business  in  India  make  no  similar  com- 
plaint of  the  Native  merchants,  whom  they  find  upright  and 
honest.  Our  officers  do  not  know  the  Natives  as  they  used 
to  do  when  our  government  was  less  centralised,  and  they 
are  every  year  becoming  more  strange  to  the  people  by  the 
increase  of  indoor  judicial  duties,  and  the  frequent  changes 
from  one  locality  to  another. 


374 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


" Following  out  our  English  ideas  by  collecting  the  land 
revenue  in  the  convenient  shape  of  money,  we  superseded 
the  old  principle  of  taking  it  in  kind,  in  certain  proportions 
of  the  produce,  according  to  the  value  of  the  land.  This 
is  an  ancient  and  common  principle  in  all  countries,  both 
East  and  West,  and  prevails  still  in  most  Eastern  States,  and 
in  many  parts  of  Europe  in  the  metayer  system.  It  is 
specially  suited  to  small  cultivators  having  little  or  no 
capital  and  it  carries  within  it  a natural  check  on  over- 
population. For,  when  payment  of  rent  is  made  by  a share 
of  the  crop,  the  cultivator,  if  he  finds  that  his  land  requires 
rest  from  over-cropping,  lets  it  rest  in  fallow,  as  he  saves  in 
rent  when  he  leaves  the  land  idle.  He  must  thus  hold  a 
larger  area  than  he  requires  to  keep  under  crop,  and  this 
operates  against  over-density  of  population.  The  share  of 
the  owner  is  greater  in  seasons  of  abundance,  and  when  the 
crop  fails  the  cultivator  is  not  called  to  pay  what  he  does 
not  possess.  The  owner  is  also  interested  in  rendering  the 
land  productive,  and  is  more  ready  to  co-operate  with  the 
cultivator  in  such  improvements  as  are  calculated  to  increase 
the  income  of  both.  And  there  would  not  be  now  the 
same  difficulty  in  India  as  in  former  times  in  realising  the 
owner’s  share,  as  roads  and  railways  have  opened  up  markets 
where  it  can  be  readily  disposed  of.  The  European  officers 
say  that  it  would  be  impossible  now  to  revert  to  this  system, 
because  the  detail  would  be  overpowering,  and  the  oppor- 
tunities for  oppression  by  the  lower  class  of  Native  officials, 
and  of  fraud  by  the  cultivators,  would  be  largely  increased. 
This  may  be  true  under  foreign  rule  like  ours,  but  it  pos- 
sessed two  qualities  of  great  value ; first,  a self-adjusting 
action  of  re-assessment,  instead  of  the  arbitrary  re-assess- 
ments which  are  now  the  cause  of  great  cost  to  the  Govern- 
ment and  much  annoyance  to  the  people  ; and  second,  a 
comparative  independence  of  the  money  lender,  who  has 


Political  Economy  in  Ireland.  375 

become  the  source  of"  most  of  the  litigation  which  has  since 
overspread  the  country.  There  is  the  best  proof  of  its  suc- 
cess in  the  fact  that,  while  those  Native  Governments  who 
thus  levy  the  revenue  obtain  a land  rent  twice  that  of  ours, 
the  people  are  not  only  able  to  pay,  but,  with  the  exception 
of  the  money  lenders,  rarely  show  any  desire  to  seek  easier 
terms  by  passing  into  British  territory.” 

In  other  words,  the  natives  of  India  know 
how  to  govern  their  own  country  very  much 
better  than  their  English  conquerors.  The 
“ native  merchants  are  upright  and  honest.” 
The  “ first  object  of  a foreign  Government  is 
the  subjection  of  the  people.”  This  plan  has 
already  failed  in  India  and  in  Ireland;  might 
it  not  be  wise  to  try,  by  way  of  experiment, 
making  the  welfare  of  the  people  the  first 
object?  No  wonder  that  the  people  of  India 
are  “slow  to  comprehend”  the  justice  of  Eng- 
lish law,  and  object  to  its  costliness. 

The  rigdit  of  the  cultivator  to  morteagre  the 
public  land  has  made  him  the  slave  of  the 
money  lender.  Government  rent  must  be  paid 
on  the  day  it  becomes  due ; it  is  rigorously 
exacted  by  the  officials,  and  as  the  Bunyia  is 
the  only  capitalist  within  reach,  the  cultivator 
gives  a charge  on  the  land,  and  hands  over  all 
his  crop  to  the  Bunyia  as  a security  for  cash 
advances.  An  account  is  opened,  the  cultivator 
is  credited  with  the  value  of  his  crop  at  the  low 


376  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated'. 

price  prevailing  after  harvest,  and  from  week  to 
week,  as  he  requires  food  or  seed,  it  is  doled 
out  to  him,  and  he  is  charged  at  the  retail  price 
fixed  by  the  seller,  with  interest  at  a rate  pro- 
portioned to  the  risk.  Difficulties  and  disputes 
arise,  the  courts  are  appealed  to,  litigation 
begins,  the  pleaders  find  employment,  and  the 
time  and  attention  of  the  civil  officers,  European 
and  Native,  are  occupied  in  adjusting  questions 
which  otherwise  would  not  have  arisen.  The 
law  necessarily  enforces  contracts,  and  in  all 
parts  of  India  the  courts  are  crowded  with  liti- 
gants, the  losing  parties  being  generally  the 
cultivators,  who,  when  reduced  to  extremities, 
sometimes  resort  to  riot  and  bloodshed,  as  in 
Sonthal  and  the  Deccan. 

Ireland  again ! Is  it  any  marvel  that  there 
is  “ riot  and  bloodshed  ” in  India  ? Captain 
Sherrard  Osborne  says  of  the  Lascars  who 
inhabit  the  hilly  regions  of  India  : — 

“ I defy  any  nation  to  produce  better  sailors  ; they  possess 
all  the  qualities  which  make  a sailor  valuable.  Treat  them 
kindly,  and  they  will  serve  you  faithfully ; outrage  their 
sense  of  propriety,  grind  them  down,  cruelly  illuse  them, 
and  they  become  your  open  flatterers  and  your  concealed 
implacable  foes !” 

And  later  on  the  writer  made  the  admission 
that  if  the  land  was  properly  cultivated  there 


Political  Economy  in  Ireland.  3 77 

would  be  no  fear  of  excessive  population ; and 
more  important  still,  “ that  the  financial  state  of 
the  country  would  be  gradually  strengthened 
by  the  growth  of  its  agricultural  prospects.” 
A Conservative  Government  did  a good  deal 
for  India  in  this  direction,  but  a Conservative 
English  author,  Sir  Stafford  Northcote,  has  no 
other  remedy  for  Ireland  except  to  call  any 
attempt  to  improve  our  agricultural  condition 
“ Force,  fraud,  and  folly.”  We  have  had  force 
for  our  rule  in  Ireland  rather  too  long.  The 
less  gentlemen  in  his  position  say  about  fraud 
the  better,  since  it  is  gentlemen  in  his  position 
who  have  committed  the  virtual  fraud  of  de- 
priving their  tenants  of  the  benefit  of  the  Land 
Act.  As  to  the  folly,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that 
such  gentlemen  will  not  bewail  their  own  folly  in 
refusing  justice  to  Ireland  when  it  is  too  late  ; or 
should  justice  be  given,  that  they  will  not  bewail 
their  own  folly  in  not  joining  heartily  with  those 
who  gave  it.  Justice  is  no  favour  ; it  is  a right. 

Coercion  has  been  tried  in  India  also.  With 
what  success  I leave  it  to  the  able  pen  of  the 
Rev.  M.  Columb,  P.P.,  to  tell  : — 

“ COERCION — THE  SATURDAY  REVIEW." 

TO  THE  EDITOR  OF  THE  FREEMAN. 

“ Killashee,  Nov.  12. 

“ Sir — As  the  Saturday  Review  in  its  deep  anxiety  foi 


37§ 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


the  protection  of  life  and  property  in  Ireland  cries  louder 
for  coercion  than  all  its  contemporaries,  it  may  interest  your 
readers  to  learn  from  the  Saturday's  own  columns  how  very 
effectually,  in  practice,  the  lives  and  property  of  her  Majesty’s 
subjects  are  indeed  protected  by  good  coercion  bills.  For 
the  history  of  the  introduction  and  nature  of  one  such 
good  bill  I beg  to  refer  your  readers  to  the  issues  of  the 
Saturday  of  the  23rd  March  and  the  6th  July,  1878,  re- 
spectively. In  these  two  issues  are  discussed  the  provisions 
of  the  Indian  Coercion  Bill  just  then  passed — a bill  which 
garotted  the  whole  of  India  in  so  gagging  the  Press  that 
nothing  dared  be  published  in  an  Indian  paper  that  had  not 
first  got  the  imprimatur  of  some  Government  official.  To 
see  now  how  effective  in  protecting  life  this  good  coercion 
bill  proved  in  India,  I would  refer  your  readers  to  the 
Saturday's  issue  of  the  31st  July  last,  in  which  it  is  plainly 
stated  that  under  the  protection  of  this  unmistakably  good 
Coercion  Bill  five  millions  of  her  Majesty’s  subjects  hap- 
pened to  die  of  famine.  Only  five  millions  ! Of  course, 
under  all  the  circumstances,  we  here  in  Ireland,  who  know 
so  well  how  beautiful  always  is  the  rule  of  the  British 
abroad,  must  hold  that  the  death  of  these  five  millions  ..as 
a miserable  euthanasia.  Thousand  times  better  for  them 
die  thus  of  famine,  protected  by  a good  Coercion  Bill,  the 
loyal  subjects  of  the  great  first  Empress  of  India  and  her 
Grand  Vizier,  Ben  Disraeli,  than  live  under  some  home- 
ruling, unpaternal  Eastern  potentate,  who  might  either  de- 
moralise them  at  such  a crisis  by  relief  or  by  employment 
on  some  public  works — such,  for  instance,  as  the  building 
a great  wall  between  them  and  China,  to  prevent  the  traffic 
in  opium,  or  the  construction  of  some  other  scientific 
frontier ; or,  worse  still,  might  lead  them  out  to  make 
wantonly  wicked  war  on  their  peaceful  neighbours  in 


Political  Economy  in  Ireland.  379 

Afghanistan,  Burmah,  or  Beloochistan,  and  thus  get  many  of 
them  put  hors  de  combat .” 

After  speaking  of  what  would  have  been 
done  by  the  “ unspeakable”  Turk  for  the  help 
of  a starving  people,  he  goes  on  to  say  : — 

“To  learn  now  from  the  same  enlightened  authority  how 
equally  efficacious  this  same  coercion  bill  proved  in  protect- 
ing the  property  of  her  Majesty’s  subjects,  I would  direct 
your  readers  in  the  first  place  to  the  Saturday’s  issue  of 
the  2 1 st  August  last,  where  it  is  shown  that  under  the  pro- 
tection of  this  Coercion  Bill  only  nine  million  pounds  ster- 
ling of  the  taxpayers’  money  came  to  be  unaccountably  lost 
by  the  sapient  satraps  of  India,  who  two  years  previously 
‘ passed  unanimously  at  a single  session’  this  Coercion  Bill 
for  the  protection  of  life  and  property. 

“ Wonderful  therefore,  must  we  all  admit  coercion  to  be 
as  a means  for  the  protection  of  life  and  property  for  have  we 
not  learned  from  the  Saturday  Review  itself  that  under  the 
operation  of  one  thoroughly  effective  coercion  bill  only  five 
millions  of  her  Majesty’s  subjects  died  of  famine  ; that  only 
nine  millions  of  her  Majesty’s  revenues  got  lost,  never  to  be 
found  ; that  only  twenty  millions  were  ‘ wrongfully  wasted’ 
from  her  Majesty’s  lieges  by  iniquitous  landlords  ; and  lastly, 
I may  add,  only  one  cruel,  costly,  wicked  war  begun  for  her 
Majesty  but  not  quite  finished.  Such  being  the  beneficent 
effects  of  coercion,  no  one  that  knows  the  Saturday  will 
wonder  that  in  the  plenitude  of  its  abiding  benevolence  for 
the  people  of  Ireland  it  so  persistently  implores  the  Go- 
vernment to  give  us,  too,  a good  Coercion  Bill  to  protect, 
forsooth,  our  lives  and  property,  even  as  the  Indian  bill  pro- 
tected the  lives  and  property  of  the  people  of  India,  or  even 


380 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


as  the  Coercion  Act  of  ’46,  belauded  by  the  Saturday , did 
indeed  protect  the  lives  and  property  of  our  countrymen,  as 
the  two  millions  ‘ gone  with  a vengeance,’  the  auxiliary  work- 
houses  and  the  existing  Landed  Estates  Courts  unmistak- 
ably prove. 

We  give  a few  further  extracts  from  Mr. 
Caird’s  report,  which  speak  for  themselves  : — 

“ Native  Indians  should  be  more  largely  employed  in  the 
administration  of  the  country.  All  details  of  judicial, 
revenue,  and  executive  business  should  be  left  to  them.  . 

It  is  by  the  concentration  of  responsibility 

and  authority  in  each  province,  and  the  fuller  development 
of  native  talent,  that  we  may  reasonably  look  for  such  a 
gradual  growth  of  prosperity  as  will  strengthen  the  people, 
and  enable  them  to  accumulate  from  the  surplus  of  good 
years  a reserve  stock  to  meet  the  demands  of  scarcity. 
When  English  laws  introduced  by  the  British  into  India  are 
unsuited  to  the  country  and  to  the  people,  who  are  dissatisfied 
with  our  judicial  system.  This  system  plunges  the  mass  of 
people  into  debt ; it  ruins  debtors  without  benefiting  credi- 
tors. Pleaders  should  be  excluded  from  petty  courts  of 
justice  ; and  the  fees  on  petty  litigation  should  be  abolished. 
As  far  as  possible,  civil  causes  should  be  decided  by  local 
juries  (panchayats)  and  local  notables.  If  in  this  way 
Natives  were  more  largely  employed,  and  if  Native  methods 
were  followed,  towns  and  districts  of  British  India  might 
vie  with  the  happiness  and  liveliness  now  so  apparent  at  the 
capitals  of  Native  States. 

“ But  it  seems  to  me  that  it  is  now  our  duty  to  face  the 
questions  of  principle  which  are  involved  in  our  connection 
with  India.  What  do  we  aim  at  there  ? Not  certainly  to 


Political  Economy  in  Ireland . 381 

hold  200  millions  of  people  under  subjection,  tempered  only 
by  the  will  of  England.” 

I will  only  add  that  there  was  a report  on  the 
report,  in  which  the  English  landlords  in  India 
assured  the  public  that  they  were  the  true  bene- 
factors of  the  people,  famishing  notwithstanding, 
and  that  the  people  were  only  too  happy  and 
too  content  under  their  rule,  rebellious  notwith- 
standing ! 

The  following  extracts  do  not  require  obser- 
vation : — 

“M.  W.  W.  Hunter,  C.I.E.,  Director-General  of  Statistics 
to  the  Government  of  India,  delivered  to  the  members  of 
the  Edinburgh  Philosophical  Institution,  in  Queen  Street 
Hall,  the  first  of  two  lectures  on  “ What  the  English  have 
yet  to  do  for  the  Indian  People.” 

From  this  lecture,  published  in  the  Times 
[Nov.  1880],  I give  the  following  extracts  : — 

“ In  districts  where  the  soil  is  poor  or  the  rainfall  uncertain, 
the  people  have  always  had  to  depend  upon  village  usurers 
for  the  capital  necessary  to  feed  them  till  the  next  harvest, 
and  to  conduct  the  operations  of  the  agricultural  year.  Amid 
the  tumults  and  insecurity  under  the  old  Native  Govern- 
ments, the  usurers  lent  comparatively  small  sums.  If  the 
peasant  failed  to  pay  they  could  not  evict  him  or  sell  his 
holding,  because,  among  other  reasons,  there  was  more 
land  than  there  were  people  to  till  it.  The  Native  Govern- 
ment, moreover,  could  not  afford  to  lose  a tenant,  and  so 
the  bankrupt  peasant  went  on,  year  after  year,  paying  as 


382 


7 he  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


much  interest  as  the  usurer  could  squeeze  out  of  him  until 
the  next  Mahratta  invasion  or  Mahomedan  rebellion  swept 
away  the  whole  generation  of  usurers,  and  so  cleared  up  the 
account. 

“ Under  our  rule  there  is  no  chance  of  such  relief  for 
insolvent  debtors,  and  our  rigid  enforcement  of  contracts, 
together  with  the  increase  of  population,  have,  in  many  ways, 
rendered  life  harder  for  the  peasant ; for  the  peasant’s  hold- 
ing, under  the  British  Government,  has  become  a valuable 
property,  and  he  can  be  readily  sold  out,  as  there  are  plenty 
of  other  husbandmen  to  step  in.  The  result  is  two-fold.  In 
the  first  place,  the  village  usurer  lends  larger  sums,  for  the 
security  is  increased  ; and,  in  the  second  place,  he  can  push 
the  peasantry  to  extremities  by  eviction,  which  was  unknown 
under  native  rule. 

“ In  certain  districts  of  Southern  India  the  people  are 
sometimes  driven  by  misery  to  take  the  law  into  their  own 
hands.  They  kill  the  village  usurer,  or  burn  down  his  house 
with  his  account-books,  and,  perhaps,  himself  in  it.  But 
this  offence,  which  was  a common  one  under  native  rule, 
now  brings  upon  the  perpetrators  the  inflexible  arm  of  the 
British  law.  Of  late  years  there  has  been  an  agrarian  agina- 
tion in  Southern  India,  similar,  in  some  respects,  to  the 
agrarian  agitation  in  Bengal.  But  in  the  south  (where  the 
Government  has  kept  the  land  under  its  own  control)  the 
revolt  has  been  against  the  usurers,  while  in  Bengal  it  has 
been  against  the  landholders. 

“In  Southern  India  the  demand  is  for  legislative  restraints 
on  selling  out  the  husbandman  ; in  Bengal  it  is  for  legislative 
restraints  on  the  enhancement  of  his  rent.  The  sad  result 
seems  to  be  that,  whether  we  give  over  the  land  to  a pro- 
prietary class,  as  in  Bengal,  or  keep  it  in  our  own  hands,  as 
in  Southern  India,  the  struggle  for  life  grows  harder  to  large 
sections  of  the  people. 


Political  Economy  in  Ireland. 


383 


“ Our  first  attempt  to  ascertain  and  define  the  Land  Laws 
of  Bengal  is  embodied  in  the  Cornwallis  Code  of  1793.  The 
difficulty,  at  that  time,  was  where  to  get  tenants,  not  how  to 
raise  their  rent.  Enhancement  was  not  a practical  question, 
and  it  finds  no  mention  in  that  code.  So  far  as  can  be  in- 
ferred from  the  spirit  of  its  provisions,  the  Indian  Legislature 
seems  to  have  assumed  that  the  proprietors  were  thence- 
forward to  pay  the  same  land-tax  for  ever  to  the  Govern- 
ment, and  that  the  tenants  were  thenceforward  to  pay  the 
same  rates  of  rent  for  ever  to  the  proprietors.  But,  before 
the  middle  of  the  present  century,  rents  had  been  enhanced 
to  such  a degree  as  to  threaten  an  agrarian  dead-lock.  It 
was  found  absolutely  necessary  to  revise  the  land  laws,  and 
J 85 9,  the  year  after  the  country  passed  under  the  Crown,  is 
memorable  in  Bengal  for  the  second  great  Land  Code.  The 
enhancement  of  rent  had  meanwhile  grown  into  the  great 
problem  of  the  day,  and  restraints  upon  enhancement  form 
the  most  important  features  of  the  Land  Code  of  1859. 
But,  in  spite  of  the  provisions  of  that  code,  the  increase  of 
the  people  and  the  natural  operation  of  economic  laws  have 
led  to  a still  further  r;se  in  rent.  The  peasantry  resisted  by 
every  legal  means,  and,  in  some  parts,  combined  to  ruin  the 
landlords  by  refusing  to  pay  rent  at  all. 

“ Their  attitude  was,  in  certain  respects,  similar  to  the 
position  of  the  Irish  peasantry  at  this  moment.  The  Indian 
husbandmad  has,  however,  a power  of  pacific  combination 
and  of  patient,  passive  resistance,  which  the  Irish  cottiers 
have  not  yet  developed.  The  most  peaceful  district  of 
Bengal,  Patna,  was,  for  some  time,  in  a state  of  agrarian 
revolt.  But  it  was  a revolt  conducted,  as  a rule,  according 
to  the  forms  of  law.  With  the  exception  of  a few  local  and 
quite  insignificant  ebullitions,  the  husbandmen  simply  said  : 
‘We  shall  not  fight,  but  we  shall  not  pay.  Every  single 
rent  which  you  landlords  collect  shall  cost  you  a law  suit, 


3^4 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


and  we  shall  contest  each  stage  of  every  law  suit,  from  the 
institution  of  the  plaint  to  the  final  order  for  selling  us  up, 
by  every  delay,  appeal,  and  other  weapon  of  chicanery  known 
to  the  law.  You  will  get  your  decree  in  the  long  run,  but, 
in  the  meantime,  you  will  be  ruined.  For  ourselves,  we  are 
as  badly  off  as  we  can  be,  and  it  is  better  for  us  to  sell  our 
last  cow  to  fight  you  in  the  courts  than  to  pay  your  rent.’ 
Among  a people  of  small  cultivators  it  is  simply  impossible 
to  collect  every  petty  rent  by  a law  suit,  and  such  a combi- 
nation really  did  mean  ruin  to  many  of  the  landlords.  The 
Government,  while  it  declared  that  it  would  maintain  public 
order,  counselled  private  concessions.  Some  sort  of  com- 
promise was  arrived  at,  and  the  Legislature  obtained  a 
breathing  space  to  again  consider  the  whole  questions  in- 
volved. The  result  is  a new  Land  Code,  the  draught  of 
which  has  just  reached  England.  In  this  code  the  most 
prominent  question  is  again  the  enhancement  of  rent,  and 
its  provisions  are  more  stringent  than  ever  in  favour  of  the 
tenant. 

“In  1859,  the  Government  practically  said  to  the  zemin- 
dars : — ‘We  created  you  as  a proprietary  body  in  1793  by 
our  own  Act.  In  doing  so  we  made  over  to  you  valuable 
rights,  which  up  to  that  time  were  vested  in  the  State,  but 
we  carefully  reserved  the  rights  of  the  cultivators.  We  shall 
now  ascertain  and  define  the  rights  of  the  cultivators ; and 
we  shall  settle  your  relations  with  them  on  the  basis  of  those 
rights.’ 

“ The  result  was  embodied  in  the  famous  Land  Laws  of 
1 859,  which  divided  the  cultivators  of  Bengal  into  four 
classes : — 

“ 1.  Tenants  who  had  held  their  holdings  at  the  same 
rent  since  1793,  and  whose  rents  could  not  be  enhanced  on 
any  ground  whatever. 

2.  Tenants  who  had  held  their  holdings  at  the  same  rent 


Political  Economy  in  Ireland.  38  £ 

for  twenty  years,  and  were,  therefore,  presumed  by  law  to 
have  held  since  1793.  The  rents  of  such  tenants  could  not 
be  raised  on  any  ground  unless  it  could  be  shown  that  they 
had  not  held  since  1793,  in  which  case  they  belonged  to  the 
next  class,  namely — 

“ 3.  Tenants  who  had  held  their  holdings  for  twelve  years. 
Such  a tenant  enjoyed  what  are  called  the  ‘ occupancy  rights,’ 
that  is  to  say,  he  had  a right  to  occupy  his  holding  so  long 
as  he  paid  the  rent ; and  his  rent  would  only  be  raised  by  a 
suit  at  law.  In  such  a suit  it  must  be  proved,  either  that 
his  holding  measures  more  acres  than  he  pays  for,  or  that 
he  pays  a lower  rate  than  other  occupancy  tenants  in  the 
neighbourhood,  or  that  the  productive  power  of  his  land,  or 
the  price  of  the  produce,  has  increased  without  any  effort 
on  his  part.  In  short,  the  rent  of  an  occupancy  tenant 
could,  by  the  law  of  1859,  be  raised  only  if  he  held  at  rates 
proved  to  be  unfair  either  to  the  landlord  or  to  the  neigh- 
bouring tenants  of  the  same  class. 

“ 4.  The  fourth  class  of  cultivators,  according  to  the  code 
of  1859,  were  those  who  had  held  for  less  than  twelve  years. 
In  these  the  law  recognised  no  rights,  and  left  them  to  make 
what  bargains  they  could,  by  leases,  or  as  tenants  at  will. 
. . . Further  experience  since  1859  has  taught  the  Govern- 
ment that  even  these  provisions  are  inadequate  to  avert  the 
wholesale  enhancement  of  rents  in  Bengal.  It  accordingly 
issued  a Commission  in  1879  to  inquire  into  the  questions 
involved ; and  the  report  of  the  Commission  has  just 
reached  England. 

“The  Commissioners,  like  the  legislators  of  1859,  have 
arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  a substantial  peasant  right  in 
the  soil  exists  in  Bengal.  They  accordingly  confirm  all  the 
rights  given  to  the  peasant  by  the  Land  Code  of  1859,  and 
in  some  important  respects  they  propose  to  augment  them. 
The  cultivators  who  have  held  their  land  at  the  same  rent 

z 


386 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


since  1793  can  never  have  their  rent  raised ; and  those  who 
have  thus  held  for  twenty  years,  are  still  presumed  to  have 
held  since  1793.  The  cultivators  who  have  held  for  twelve 
years  have  their  privileges  increased.  Their  occupancy 
rights  are  consolidated  into  a valuable  peasant-tenure,  trans- 
ferable by  sale,  gift,  or  inheritance ; and  it  is  proposed  that 
all  increase  in  the  value  of  the  land  or  the  crop,  not  arising 
from  the  agency  of  either  the  landlord  or  tenant,  shall  hence- 
forth be  divided  equally  between  them.  This  provision  is  a 
very  important  one  in  a country  like  Bengal,  where  new  rail- 
ways, new  roads,  and  the  increase  of  the  people  and  of  trade 
constantly  tend  to  raise  the  price  of  the  agricultural  staples. 

“ What  political  economists  call  the  ‘ unearned  increment’ 
is  no  longer  to  accrue  to  the  proprietor,  but  is  to  be  divided 
between  him  and  the  cultivator,  so  that  landlord  and  tenant 
are  henceforth  to  be  joint  sharers  in  the  increasing  value  of 
the  land.  This  is  an  important  step ; but  the  great  changes 
proposed  by  the  Rent  Commissioners  refer  to  the  husband- 
men who  have  held  for  less  than  twelve  years,  and  whom 
the  Land  Code  of  1859  admitted  to  no  rights  whatever.  It 
left  them  to  make  the  best  bargain  they  could  with  the 
landlords ; and  this  bargain  has  been  such  a very  bad  one 
as  to  cause  widespread  distress. 

“The  Commissioners  declare  that  the  competition  for 
land,  if  unchecked  by  law  or  custom,  reduces  ‘ the  whole 
agricultural  population  to  a condition  of  misery  and  degrada- 
tion.’ and  they  have  resolved,  so  far  as  in  them  lies,  to  arrest 
this  slow  ruin  of  Bengal.  They  enunciate  the  principle  that 
‘ the  land  of  a country  belongs  to  the  people  of  a country  ; 
and  while  vested  rights  should  be  treated  with  all  possible 
tenderness,  no  mode  of  appropriation  and  cultivation  should 
be  permanently  allowed  by  the  ruler  which  involves  the 
wretchedness  of  the  great  majority  of  the  people,  if  the 
alteration  or  amendment  of  the  law  relating  to  land  can  by 


Political  Economy  in  Ireland.  387 


itself,  or  in  conjunction  with  other  measures,  obviate  or 
remedy  the  misfortune.’  Strong  doctrine  this;  and  very 
stringently  do  the  Commissioners  apply  it.  In  their  draft 
code  they  propose  a system  of  compensation  for  disturbance 
the  thorough-going  character  of  which  contrasts  strongly 
with  the  very  mild  Irish  Bill  which  the  House  of  Lords 
rejected  last  Session. 

“ The  Bengal  Rent  Commissioners  would  accord  a quasi- 
occupancy  right  to  all  tenants  who  have  held  for  three  years. 
They  propose  that  such  a tenant  shall  not  be  evicted,  except 
(a)  for  non-payment  of  rent ; ( b ) for  the  breach  of  some  con- 
dition in  his  lease  for  which  the  penalty  of  eviction  was 
stipulated ; or  (c)  the  refusal  to  pay  an  increased  rent.  If 
the  landlord  demands  an  increased  rent  from  such  a tenant, 
and  the  tenant  prefers  to  leave  rather  than  submit  to  the 
enhancement,  then  the  landlord  must  pay  him — first,  a sub- 
stantial compensation  for  disturbance,  and  second,  by  a 
substantial  compensation  for  improvements. 

“ The  compensation  for  disturbance  is  calculated  at  a sum 
equal  to  one  year’s  increased  rent  as  demanded  by  the  land- 
lord. The  compensation  for  improvements  includes  payment 
for  buildings  erected  by  the  tenant,  for  tanks,  wells,  irriga- 
tion works,  drainage  works,  embankments,  or  for  the  renewal 
or  improvement  of  any  of  the  foregoing ; also  for  any  land 
which  the  tenant  may  have  reclaimed  or  enclosed,  and  for 
all  fruit-trees  which  he  may  have  planted.  The  operation 
of  these  clauses  will  be  that  before  the  landlord  can  raise 
the  rent,  he  must  be  prepared  to  pay  to  the  out-going  tenant 
a sum  which  will  swallow  up  the  increased  rental  for  several 
years.  The  practical  result  is  to  give  a more  or  less  com- 
plete degree  of  tenant  right  to  all  cultivators  who  have  held 
their  land  for  three  years  or  upwards,  that  is,  almost  the 
whole  agricultural  population  of  Bengal. 


388  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

“ The  analogy  of  the  situation  in  Bengal  to  the  agrarian 
agitation  in  Ireland  is  in  some  respects  a striking  one.  In 
both  countries  a state  of  things  has  grown  up  under  British 
rule  which  seems  unbearable  to  a section  of  the  people.  In 
Bengal  the  peasantry  have  fought  by  every  weapon  of  delay 
afforded  by  the  courts  ; in  England  the  Irish  representatives 
are  fighting  by  every  form  of  obstruction  possible  in  Parlia- 
ment In  both  countries  we  may  disapprove  of  the  weapons 
employed,  but  in  both  we  must  admit  that  these  weapons 
are  better  than  the  ruder  ones  of  physical  force.  In  both 
countries  I believe  that  the  peasantry  will  more  or  less  com- 
pletely win  the  day,  for  in  both,  the  state  of  things  of  which 
they  complain  is  repugnant  to  the  awakened  conscience  of 
the  British  nation. 

“ But  the  analogy,  although  striking,  must  not  be  pushed 
too  far;  for,  on  the  one  hand,  the  Irish  peasantry  has  emi- 
gration open  to  it — a resource  practically  not  available  to 
the  Bengal  husbandman.  On  the  other  hand,  the  proprie- 
tary right  in  Bengal  was  a gift  of  our  own  as  late  as  1793 — 
a gift  hedged  in  by  reservations  in  favour  of  the  peasantry, 
and  conferred  for  the  distinctly  expressed  purpose  of  secur- 
ing the  welfare  of  the  people.  The  proprietary  right  in 
Ireland  is  the  growth  of  centuries  of  spoliation  and  conquest. 
It  may,  perhaps,  therefore,  be  found  possible  to  accord  a 
secure  position  to  the  peasantry  of  Bengal  without  injustice 
to  the  landlords. 

“But  the  Irish  difficulty  is  a more  complex  one,  and 
demands  a higher  order  of  statesmanship  for  its  solution ; 
for  the  problem  in  Ireland  is  how  to  get  rid  of  a national 
inheritance  of  wrong  with  the  least  cost  to  the  nation  and 
with  the  least  infringement  of  vested  proprietary  rights 

From  Mr.  Hunter’s  second  lecture  I give 


Political  Economy  in  Ireland.  389 


three  extracts,  one  from  the  beginning,  one 
from  the  middle,  and  one  from  the  end  : — 

“ On  Tuesday  I endeavoured  to  place  before  you  the 
real  meaning  of  the  poverty  of  the  Indian  people.  This 
evening  I shall  ask  your  attention  to  some  of  the  difficulties 
which  that  poverty  gives  rise  to  in  the  government  of  the 
country.  Men  must  first  have  enough  to  live  upon  before 
they  can  pay  taxes.  The  revenue-yielding  ^powers  of  a 
nation  are  regulated,  not  by  its  numbers,  but  by  the  margin 
which  exists  between  the  national  earnings  and  its  require- 
ments for  subsistence.  It  is  because  this  margin  is  so  great 
in  England  that  the  English  are  the  most  taxable  people  in 
the  world.  It  is  because  this  margin  is  so  small  in  India 
that  any  increase  in  the  revenue  involves  serious  difficulties. 
It  may  seem  a contradiction  in  terms  to  say  that  the  English, 
who  pay  at  the  rate  of  40s.  per  head  to  the  Imperial  Ex- 
chequer, besides  many  local  burdens,  are  more  lightly  taxed 
than  the  Indians,  who  pay  only  at  the  rate  of  3s.  6d.  per 
head  to  the  Imperial  Exchequer,  with  scarcely  any  local 
burdens.” 

“You  will  find  the  natives  of  India  the  safer  guides  with 
regard  to  the  wants  of  India.  I hold  in  my  hand  a petition 
lately  presented  to  Parliament  by  the  British  Indian  As- 
sociation. That  petition  sets  forth  the  native  programme  of 
reform.  It  asks  for  a larger  and  more  independent  share  in 
the  legislative  councils  of  India,  and  it  is  certain  that  at  no 
distant  date  such  a share  must  be  conceded  to  the  Indian 
people.  It  urges  the  necessity  of  military  retrenchments, 
and  the  injustice  of  dealing  with  the  Indian  finances  in  the 
class  interests  of  England  rather  than  in  the  sole  interest  of 
the  Indian  taxpayer.  Well,  at  this  moment,  retrenchments 
to  the  extent  of,  I believe,  ,£1,500,000  are  being  proposed 


390  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 

by  the  Indian  Army  Commission ; and  there  is  no  doubt 
that  Indian  finance  has  been  sometimes  dealt  with  with 
an  eye  to  English  rather  than  to  Indian  interests.” 

“You  must  realize  that  the  responsibility  for  India  has 
passed  into  the  hands  of  Parliament,  and  through  Parlia- 
ment to  the  electoral  body  of  Great  Britain.  You  must 
realize  that  if  through  ignorance  or  indifference  you  fail  to 
discharge  that  responsibility  you  are  acting  as  bad  citizens. 
You  must  therefore  set  yourselves  to  learn  more  about 
India.  You  must  act  in  a spirit  of  absolute  honesty  towards 
the  Indian  finances,  and  you  must  deal  with  Indian  ques- 
tions which  come  home  for  your  decision,  not  in  the  interest 
of  privileged  classes  or  of  political  parties  in  this  country, 
but  in  the  sole  interest  of  the  Indian  people.” 

The  administrators  of  the  Poor  Laws  in  Ire- 
land are  another  source  of  serious  evil.  As  we 
have  said  before,  the  land  agent  is  generally 
the  Chairman  of  the  Board  of  Guardians,  and 
the  guardians  hear  but  to  obey.  They  are  for 
the  most  part  struggling  shop-keepers,  who  dare 
not  speak,  and  who  are  treated  with  contempt 
by  their  masters.  No  doubt  in  some  places  the 
Poor  Law  Guardians  are  manly  and  indepen- 
dent ; but  when  the  agent  is  a terroriser,  they 
generally  for  fear,  if  not  for  profit,  prefer  to 
submit  The  land  agent  can  generally  secure  the 
co-operation  of  subserviency.  Even  on  the  bench 
he  can  secure  the  silence  and  co-operation  of 
some  J.P.,  for  whom  he  has  obtained  the  coveted 
dignity,  because  the  recipient  of  the  favour  may 


Political  Economy  in  Ireland . 391 

have  risen  from  a very  humble  position.  A 
guardian  may  have  a son  who  wishes  to  be 
promoted  to  some  post  of  social  importance 
and  monetary  value.  The  very  few  who  could, 
or  who  might  speak,  are  not  only  carefully 
bribed  to  silence,  but  they  are  also  made  useful 
tools. 

The  difference  between  English  and  Irish 
Poor  Law  is  briefly  this  : — 

“ 1.  Union  rating  obtains  in  England,  electoral  division 
rating  (for  out-door  relief)  in  Ireland. 

“2.  In  England  the  able-bodied  are  entitled  to  out-door 
relief : 

(a)  In  any  case  of  sudden  or  urgent  necessity. 

( b ) In  any  case  of  sickness,  accident,  or  bodily  or 
mental  infirmity  affecting  either  themselves  or  any 
of  their  family. 

(< c ) For  the  purpose  of  defraying  wholly  or  partially  the 
expenses  of  the  burial  of  any  member  of  their 
family. 

“ In  Ireland  out-door  relief  cannot  be  granted  (supposing 
the  workhouse  not  full  or  infected)  unless  the  head  of  the 
family  is  himself  disabled  by  sickness  or  accident,  the  only 
exception  being  in  case  of  persons  evicted. 

“3.  In  England  out-door  relief  may  be  granted  to  a widow 
with  one  child  ; in  Ireland  she  must  have  two  or  more. 

“ 4.  In  England  out-door  relief  may  be  granted  : 

(a)  To  all  widows  for  six  months. 

(b)  To  the  families  of  persons  confined  in  gaols  or 

asylums. 

(c)  To  the  wives  and  children  of  soldiers  and  sailors. 


392 


The  Case  of  Ireland  staled. 


(d)  To  children  of  non-resident  persons,  if  the 
mothers  reside  within  the  Union,  thus  making 
provision  for  families  deserted  by  their  natural 
heads.  No  corresponding  powers  to  the  above 
are  conferred  upon  Boards  of  Guardians  in 
Ireland. 

And  yet,  from  the  suppression  of  manufactures 
in  Ireland,  and  the  absence  of  all  Government 
employment  the  poor  are  dependent  on  Poor 
Law  help. 

Mr.  Fox,  in  his  valuable  pamphlet  says: — 

“ Some  modification  of  the  existing  Poor  Law  system  is 
obviously  necessary.  The  adoption  of  the  principle  of 
Union  rating,  as  in  England,  would  have  a most  beneficial 
effect,  inasmuch  as  it  would  tend  to  promote  an  extension  of 
that  out-door  relief  so  sorely  needed,  yet  so  much  more 
restricted  in  Ireland.  And  if  a number  of  the  local  clergy 
were  admitted  to  seats  at  the  Board  of  Guardians,  in  virtue 
of  their  office,  their  presence  could  scarcely  fail  to  diffuse 
amongst  that  important  body  somewhat  more  of  kindly  con- 
sideration for  the  sad  misfortunes  of  the  destitute  and  deserv- 
ing poor. 

“ The  smallness  of  the  amount  of  Poor  Law  relief  distri- 
buted in  Ireland,  as  compared  with  England,  is  not  gene- 
rally known.  In  1878  85,000  persons  only  were  relieved 
in  Ireland,  at  a cost  of  ,£990,000 ; while  in  England 
748,000  persons  were  relieved,  during  the  same  period,  at  a 
cost  of  ,£7,688,000,  Taking  the  population  of  Ireland  at 
one-fourth  of  that  of  England,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  Poor 
Law  relief  distributed  in  Ireland,  the  poorer  country,  is  not 
one-half  what  it  is  in  England,  the  richer  country.  (P.  36.) 


Political  Economy  in  Ireland.  393 

The  resources  and  wealth  of  the  Empire  are 
freely  given  for  English  undertakings,  whilst  a 
trifling  loan  is  denied  to  Ireland  to  construct  a 
railway,  improve  a canal,  or  to  form  a dock  for 
shipping  purposes.  Within  some  twenty  years 
past  upwards  of  five  millions  of  public  money 
have  been  spent  on  English  harbours,  including 
Alderney ; whilst  a sum  of  ,£40,000,  not  the 
one-hundredth  part,  was  all  but  refused  to  Ire- 
land to  improve  her  harbours,  and  was  opposed 
by  Lord  F.  Cavendish,  brother  to  the  u Liberal 
Whig  ” Marquis  of  Hartington,  and  son  of  the 
Duke  of  Devonshire,  who  owns  large  estates  in 
Ireland  and  draws  from  them  a princely  revenue. 
A Parliamentary  paper  has  just  been  issued 
(Sept.  1880)  from  which  it  appears  that,  in 
addition  to  this,  coast  defences  have  cost  the 
country,  within  a few  years,  £*7,413,346,  and 
that  the  whole  of  this,  except  ,£194,000  spent 
on  the  convict  establishment  at  Spike  Island, 
was  expended  on  English  harbours,  making 
together  upwards  of  twelve  millions  of  the  public 
money.  Of  the  latter  expenditure,  Portsmouth 
alone  received  £3,067,991,  about  twenty  times 
the  amount  expended  on  the  whole  of  Ireland, 

The  Rev.  John  Boylan,  P.P.,  says: — 

u The  great  evil  of  this  country  is  the  want  of  employ- 
ment for  the  energetic  and  industrious ; and  it  has  been 


394 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 


Ireland’s  misfortune,  for  centuries,  to  be  divided  almost  be- 
tween two  classes — the  few  rich  and  the  multitudinous  poor 
— the  landlords,  as  a body,  sitting  there,  from  year  to  year, 
watching  for  their  rents  instead  of  opening  up  our  industries 
by  the  investment  of  their  capital  and  giving  employment  to 
the  people  in  grand  public  works  of  permanent  utility.” 

Yet,  even  in  the  Famine  every  possible  diffi- 
culty was  put,  again  and  again,  in  the  way  of 
having  relief  works  opened. 

The  London  correspondent  of  the  Freemans 
fonrnal  writes  : — 

“It  is  pretty  manifest  that  the  Government  are  afraid,  in 
face  of  the  General  Election,  to  publish  the  list  of  the  loans 
which  have  been  demanded  and  those  which  have  been 
granted.  A more  shameful  transaction  in  this  connection 
has  come  under  my  notice.  The  scheduling  of  Unions  has 
been  delayed,  through  the  red  tapeism  of  the  Board  of  Works, 
until  they  have  been  deprived  of  the  benefits  of  the  Act. 
This  is  bad  enough,  but  there  is  a greater  grievance  to  come. 
The  Parsonstown  Union  was  duly  and  legally  scheduled, 
but  on  application  for  loans  for  farmers,  who  have  been 
absolutely  ruined  by  unprecedented  floods,  the  answer  from 
the  Public  Works  Office  was,  that  all  the  funds  granted  by 
Government,  at  the  low  terms,  had  long  before  been  applied 
for  and  exhausted.  It  is  hard  enough  that  Unions  which 
were  scheduled  only  at  the  last  moment  should  be  rejected; 
but  it  is  perfectly  scandalous  that  sufficient  provision  should 
not  have  been  made  for  loans  for  all  the  Unions  which  had 
complied  with  the  requirements  of  the  Act.” 

Mr.  Bright  gives  the  following  reason  why 
there  is  so  much  pauperism  in  Ireland  : — 


Political  Economy  in  Ireland \ 


395 


“But  one  of  the  results  of  this  system  of  insecurity  is 
this,  that  tenants  will  not  cultivate  their  lands  according  to 
the  best  of  their  knowledge  or  according  to  the  best  of  their 
capital ; for  to  improve  their  cultivation  is  followed  too  often 
by  the  increase  of  rent.  I met  the  other  day  a gentleman, 
one  of  the  most  extensive  and  intelligent  farmers  in  this 
country,  who  had  been  over  the  island,  and  who  had  passed 
through  some  of  the  discontented  and  suffering  counties. 
He  said,  £ The  land  is  soaking  with  water,  the  cultivation  is 
slovenly,  and  the  farmers  do  not  obtain  more  than  half  what 
ought  to  be  obtained  from  it.’  He  says,  as  to  the  insecurity, 
that  a man  hardly  attempted  to  put  on  a good  or  new  coat, 
for  fear  it  should  be  discovered  that  it  was  a sign  that  he 
would  pay  a little  more  rent  (applause).” 

Mr.  Tuke  says  : — 

“ I have  been  told  over  and  over  again  that  the  dread  of 
having  an  increased  rent  to  pay  constantly  prevents  improve- 
ments in  the  land.  On  the  other  hand,  I am  frequently  told 
that  this  is  an  imaginary  fear  and  that  the  thing  is  rarely 
done.  Be  this  as  it  may,  the  above  instances  go  to  prove 
how  very  real  the  fear  is,  and  that  it  operates  to  a most  mis- 
chievous extent.  It  is,  I am  persuaded,  very  largely  at  the 
root  of  the  wretched  cultivation  so  common  here,  and  the 
cause  of  much  of  the  bitterness  of  feeling  existing  between 
landlords  and  tenants. 

“ ‘ I met  a little  farmer,’  said  one  of  the  party,  4 who  was 
returning  from  England  with  i for  his  summer’s  earnings, 
who  told  me  that  he  would  never  go  to  England  for  wages, 
if  he  was  free  to  stay  and  reclaim  the  mountain-land  he  held 
in  addition  to  the  small  quantity  of  arable  land  cultivated.’ 
‘ Free,’  that  is,  from  the  fear  of  having  to  pay  an  increased 
rent  for  improvements  solely  effected  by  himself.” 


39^ 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated \ 


Of  course  the  landlords  deny  it.  They  say 
the  people  are  lazy  and  wont  work.  Again  I 
quote  Mr.  Tuke  : — 

“ A turn  in  the  road  brought  us  to  the  house  of  Dr. 
Thompson,  the  Protestant  Rector  of  Glencolumbkill,  who  is 
working  most  zealously  for  the  people.  On  the  road  and 
around  his  house  we  saw  a number  of  men  very  busily  at 
work  in  spite  of  the  rain.  They  received  either  9d.  a day 
wages,  or  6d.  where  the  families  received  an  allowance  of 
meal.  Dr.  Thompson  represented  to  us  the  great  willing- 
ness of  these  men  to  work.  ‘ They  will  crowd  for  it  at  6d. 
a day.’  When  they  came  up  for  their  small  pay  we  saw 
them  receive  it  with  the  greatest  thankfulness.” 

Honest  John  Bright  says,  in  his  recent  memor- 
able speech  : — 

“ I believe,  as  much  as  I believe  anything,  that  it  is  pos- 
sible to  frame  a measure  of  legislation  which  will  satisfy  the 
great  bulk  of  the  Irish  tenant  farmers,  and  will,  before  long, 
withdraw  them  from  the  influences  of  men  who  would  lead 
them  into  calamities  not  less  than  those  of  which  they  com- 
plained of  and  now  endure  (cheers).  What  they  want  is 
this — some  mode  by  which  when  a man  has  his  house  over 
his  head — built  it  himself  probably,  or  built  by  some  pre- 
ceding member  of  his  family,  and  has  his  little  farm  around 
him,  he  should  not  incessantly  be  taught  that  he  may  any 
day  have  notice  to  quit,  and  be  turned  out  of  his  farm  and 
home,  and  that  the  rent  should  not  be  constantly  added  to 
until  even  going  out  of  his  farm  is  a less  evil  than  remain- 
ing in  it.  He  wants  some  security  from  the  constant  torture 
and  menace  which  he  feels  hanging  over  him,  and  he  wants 


Political  Economy  in  Ireland. 


397 


also  that  there  should  be  some  broad  and  generous  and 
complete  system  established  by  the  Government,  which 
landowners  who  are  willing  to  sell — of  which  there  must  be 
many  now  (laughter) — that  landowners,  who  are  willing  to 
sell,  and  there  are  many  at  all  times,  and  where  tenants  are 
able  and  willing  to  buy,  that  through  the  instrumentality  of 
this  Government  Commission  you  may  gradually,  year  by 
year,  add  rapidly  to  the  number  of  proprietary  farmers  in 
Ireland  (cheers).  Another  point  is  worth  mentioning.  In 
the  year  1847,  in  January  of  that  year,  I recollect  hearing 
Lord  John  Russell,  in  the  House  of  Commons,  explaining 
the  objects  and  intentions  of  the  Government  with  regard 
to  some  provision  for  the  famine  that  was  then  overtaking 
the  Irish  people,  and  one  of  the  proposals  was  this — to  take 
into  the  hands  of  the  Government,  through  some  managing 
power  and  authority,  waste  lands  in  Ireland  which  were 
capable  of  being  profitably  cultivated,  and  by  some  arrange- 
ments finding  homes,  and  farms,  and  employment  for  a con- 
siderable number  of  people.  Now,  Ireland  contains  about 
twenty  millions  of  acres.  I do  not  know  the  number  of 
acres  that  may  be  called  waste  lands.  I have  heard  it  put 
at  two  millions  and  more,  but  I will  assume,  for  the  sake  of 
my  illustration,  that  there  are  one  million  of  acres  in  Ireland 
that  are  capable  of  cultivation,  and  would  repay  the  culti- 
vator ; and  that  it  would  be  as  wise  to  cultivate  as  the 
average  portion  of  the  Irish  land  that  is  now  cultivated. 
Well,  what  would  a million  acres  do  ? It  would  make  not 
less  than  40,000  farms  of  25  acres  each.  It  would  be  pos- 
sible, probably,  to  bring  over  from  those  extreme  western 
parts,  where  the  climate  is  precarious  and  the  land  so  stoney 
and  so  poor — it  might  be  possible  to  invite  little  farmers, 
peasant  occupiers  from  those  districts,  and  to  place  them 
upon  waste  lands  thus  divided  and  thus  cultivated.  What 
is  a million ; what  is  five  millions ; what  is  ten  millions  to 


39« 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated ’ 


this  country  to  pursue  to  a successful  issue  a great  question 
like  this?  (Cheers.)  We  hear  that  the  Afghan  war 
certainly  has  cost  twenty,  and  good  authority  says  before  all 
the  accounts  are  made  up,  and  everything  is  settled,  that  it 
will  have  cost  thirty  millions  (hisses).  I will  assume  twenty 
millions  ; that  is  a large  sum — a sum  that  trips  glibly  off  the 
tongue,  but  of  which  none  of  us  has  the  slightest  idea  how 
much  it  is.  If  there  be  anything  to  be  done  in  Afghanistan 
or  in  Zululand,  if  there  be  some  very  foolish  ministry  picking 
up  quarrels  in  the  East  of  Europe,  they  can  bring  you  thou- 
sands of  men  from  Bombay  to  Malta  (laughter),  spite  of  Acts 
of  Parliament  and  spite  of  constitutional  usages.  Is  it  con- 
ceivable that  an  English  Government  and  an  English  Parlia- 
ment, omnipotent  within  a great  Empire,  cannot  come  forward, 
and  by  a strong  will,  and  strong  hand,  and  strong  resolve,  do 
whatever  is  necessary  to  be  done  with  regard  to  the  condition 
of  Ireland?  (Loud  cheers.)  The  general  results  may  be  stated 
in  figures.  I stated  them  here  in  figures  not  long  ago;  but 
they  are  so  startling  and  so  impressive  that  in  one  sentence 
I shall  place  them  before  you  again.  The  proprietors  of 
land  in  Ireland  are  few  ip  number  for  a country  so  large, 
and  among  them  are  those  who  hold  estates,  properties 
which,  or  a part  of  which,  they  can  let — I mean  estates  of 
80  or  ioo  acres;  over  that  I suppose  there  are  not  more 
than  12,000  or  14,000  owners  in  Ireland.  One-third  of  Ire- 
land is  possessed  by  292  persons;  one-half  of  Ireland  is 
possessed  by  744  persons — I suppose  about  as  many  as  are 
in  that  gallery  at  the  other  end  of  the  hall ; and  two-thirds 
of  the  whole  island  are  in  the  possession  of  1,942 — perhaps 
a little  more  than  half  the  persons  that  are  present  now  in 
this  building.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  there  are  more  than 
500,000  tenants.  There  is  a great  fact — 500,000  families, 
having  at  least  from  two  and  a half  to  three  millions  of 
persons  dependent  upon  the  soil,  competing  with  each  other 


Political  Economy  in  Ireland. 


399 


for  the  possession  of  a farm,  having  no  variety  of  occupa- 
tions, as  there  are  in  England,  having,  of  course,  only  one 
way,  and  that  only  the  way  out  of  the  country,  to  escape 
from  the  difficulties  in  which  they  find  themselves.  These 
500,000  tenants  are  living,  as  they  allege,  for  the  most  part 
in  a condition  of  continual  insecurity.  The  rent  may  be 
raised  half-a-crown  an  acre  this  year,  and  another  halfa- 
crown  next.  If  the  farm  passes  from  the  father  to  the  son, 
or  from  the  widow  to  the  son,  or  from  the  farmer  to  his 
brother,  or  to  another  farmer  of  a new  family,  there  is  an 
occasion  when  it  is  easy  to  propose  some  addition  to  the 
rent.  The  addition  may  not  be  so  large  as  to  shock  the 
farmer  and  to  drive  him  to  cease  from  any  attempt  to  enter 
upon  the  farm.  By  little  and  little  rent  is  added  to,  the 
irritation  of  the  tenant  becomes  greater  and  greater  ; he  sees 
the  end  to  which  he  is  being  driven.  He  cannot  live  upon 
the  farm,  and  he  must  give  it  up,  and  he  must  find  himself 
homeless  in  his  own  country,  and  thus  there  has  grown  up 
in  Ireland — and  of  course  most  in  the  poorest  districts — 
there  has  grown  up  an  irritation  and  a discontent  which  is 
the  notorious  and  the  universal  material  on  which  social  or 
political  insurrections  are  generally  based.  We  must  not 
forget  that  in  Ireland  men  who  hold  the  land  hold  the  homes 
and  the  lives  of  the  people  (applause).  It  matters  not  dis- 
guising it,  or  putting  it  in  language  less  unpleasant.  . . . 

I have  seen  something  of  Irish  farmers  in  travelling  for 
weeks  in  that  country.  I have  heard  of  them  from  many 
people,  some  not  of  the  political  opinions  which  I hold.  I 
have  lately  had  the  opportunity  of  discussing  with  men  con- 
nected with  the  making  of  railroads  in  Ireland,  engineers, 
contractors,  and  persons  eminent  in  that  way,  and  yet  I am 
bound  to  say  that  I have  heard  on  the  whole  nothing  but  a 
good  opinion,  a sympathetic  opinion,  of  the  general  character 
of  the  Irish  population  with  which  they  were  connected. 


400 


The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 


The  farmers  are,  in  the  main,  industrious  and  honest. 
There  has  been  no  country  in  Europe,  no  part  of  the  United 
Kingdom,  in  which  rents  have  been  more  generally  and  con- 
stantly and  fairly  paid  than  in  Ireland,  until  the  recent 
troubles  (hear,  hear).  The  Irish  farmer  is  an  economist. 
He  saves  even  to  penuriousness.  The  great  object  of  his 
life  is  to  enable  him  to  give  a small  portion  to  his  daughters 
on  their  marriage  (hear,  hear).  The  Irish  people  expatriated 
to  the  United  States  have  sent  millions  and  millions  of 
money  to  Ireland  to  help  their  poor  relations  to  make  the 
voyage  thither.” 

“ It  has  been  said  by  the  same  high  authority  that  I 
before  quoted  (a  laugh)  that  a great  part  of  the  troubles  of 
Ireland  came  from  its  being  surrounded  by  a melancholy 
ocean  (great  laughter).  Well,  I believe  all  islands  are  sur- 
rounded by  some  kind  of  an  ocean  (great  laughter),  and  all 
oceans  that  I have  yet  seen  wear  at  times  a very  melancholy 
aspect  (renewed  laughter) ; but  it  is  not  that  the  soil  of 
Ireland  is  not  green  enough,  or  that  the  ocean  is  not  prolific 
enough  in  fish ; in  fact,  there  is  nothing  in  the  geographical 
condition  of  Ireland  that  in  the  slightest  degree  accounts 
for  the  trouble  which  Ireland  has  been  to  itself  and  to  this 
country,  with  which  it  is  now  politically  allied.  But  we 
find  that,  as  a consequence  of  a policy  which  we  all  now 
regret  and  condemn,  Irish  patriotism,  as  apart  from  what  is 
called  patriotism  in  this  country,  has  consisted  to  a large 
extent  in  hatred  of  Protestantism,  hatred  of  landlords,  and 
hatred  of  England.  If  the  English  people  had  been  in- 
formed, if  they  had  been  capable  within  the  last  two  centuries 
of  judging  fairly  of  these  matters,  there  cannot  be  a doubt 
that — if  in  addition  to  this  the  Government  had  been 
merciful  and  just  to  Ireland — Ireland  would  be  as  closely 
welded  at  this  moment  to  England  as  Scotland  is  (applause), 
and  it  would  be  as  difficult  to  raise  the  flag  of  insurrection 


Political  Economy  in  Ireland.  401 

or  discontent  in  Ireland  as  it  would  be  for  Prince  Charlie 
again  to  appear  with  his  flag  in  Scotland  (applause). 

The  difference  between  the  status  of  the 
tenant  in  England  and  the  tenant  in  Ireland  is 

o 

briefly  this  : — 

1.  In  England  a yearly  tenant  can  only  be 
evicted  on  a year’s  notice,  which  must  expire 
on  the  anniversary  of  the  taking. 

2.  In  Ireland  a yearly  tenant  may  be  evicted 
on  a three  month’s  notice. 

3.  In  England  the  out-going  tenant  is  entitled 
to  receive  compensation  for  all  unexhausted 
improvements. 

4.  In  Ireland  the  tenant  could  be  evicted 
without  receiving  any  compensation  whatever 
up  to  the  year  1870.  In  that  year  an  Act  was 
passed  giving  him  compensation,  except  in  cases 
of  non-payment  of  rent.  The  landlord  takes 
advantage  of  this  deceptive  legislation,  raises 
the  rent  beyond  what  the  tenant  can  pay,  ejects 
him,  and  thus  obtains  possession  of  the  improved 
land  without  compensation — an  injustice  the 
more  flagrant  as  the  improvements  are  generally 
made  by  the  tenant  and  not  by  the  landlord. 
In  this  act  of  injustice  he  is  assisted,  to  use  Mr, 
Gladstone’s  words,  by  an  army  of  soldiers  and 
constabulary. 


A 2 


402  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

But  there  is  more  than  the  bare  legal  diffe- 
rence. In  England  there  are  few  landlords 
indeed  who  do  not  take  a personal  interest  in 
their  tenantry.  At  Christmas  and  Easter  special 
help  is  given  to  the  very  poor,  the  sick,  and 
aged.  Free  gifts  of  coals  and  blankets  are  in 
the  smallest  English  villages  liberally  distri- 
buted amongst  the  people.  In  Ireland,  with 
rare  exceptions,  nothing  of  the  kind  is  done, 
and  the  only  intercourse  between  landlord  and 
tenant  is  the  “ stand  and  deliver’’  process  of 
getting  the  rent. 

If  English  statesmen  will  not  protect  the 
rights  of  Irish  tenants  at  least  they  might  give 
them  the  trifling  means  of  encouraging  Irish 
fisheries  and  reclaiming  waste  lands.  If  some 
of  the  millions  spent  on  useless  wars  were  ex- 
pended in  this  way,  England  would  gain  more 
than  Ireland. 

God  help  the  poor  patient  fishermen,  driven 
even  to  mend  their  boats  with  brown  paper  in 
their  earnest,  honest  desire  to  work ; and  God 
forgive  the  men  who  live  on  their  toil  and  sweat 
and  then  taunt  them  with  idleness. 

Mr.  Tuke  says  (p.  32)  : — 

“At  Mackery  a little  in-shore  fishing  is  carried  on. 
Coracles  are  the  boats  employed,  and  during  the  stormy 
winter  many  of  these  frail  craft  had  been  damaged  and 


Political  Economy  in  Ireland.  403 

rendered  useless.  One  poor  man  had  just  been  up  to  the 
Rectory  to  beg  for  some  brown  paper  to  mend  his  boat 
with.  A more  enterprising  man,  the  Rector  told  us,  had 
built  for  himself  a good  wooden  boat,  and  had  done  ex- 
tremely well  ever  since,  and  was  much  better  off  than  his 
neighbours.  The  harbour,  or  bay,  is  safe  and  sheltered,  and 
the  Rector  (Rev.  S.  E.  Burns)  thought  that  if  funds  could 
be  got  for  a few  good  boats,  which  could  be  built  by  the 
men  themselves,  it  would  be  of  great  and  permanent  benefit 
to  them.” 

The  whole  history  of  Irish  fisheries  is  a 
history  of  the  pitiful  struggles  of  hard-working, 
honest  men  against  every  possible  disadvantage. 

We  give  a few  extracts  from  this  years 
current  report : — 

“GENERAL  REMARKS.” 

“ So  far,  I think  the  Act  of  Parliament  affording  loans  to 
fishermen  has  proved  a success,  and  an  impetus  has  been 
given  to  fishing  operations.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  they 
are  not  carried  out  on  the  west  coast  on  an  extensive  scale, 
instead  of  the  uncertain,  spasmodic  attempts  that  are  made 
by  the  poor  people  living  near  the  coast.  This  class  of 
persons  is  unsuitable  for  large  undertakings  by  themselves, 
though  they  might  be  made  useful  to  others  who  would 
enter  into  the  enterprise,  which,  to  command  success,  must 
be  carried  out  by  the  personal  superintendence,  labour,  and 
active  exertions  of  the  principals  themselves.  Until  such 
people  are  found  it  is  well  to  foster  the  industry  of  the 
poorer  classes  who  now  follow  fishing  on  the  west  coast, 
and  who  at  seasons  are  enabled  to  bring  additional  supplies 
of  food  into  the  country. 


404  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

“ Without  the  loans,  I have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that 
many  of  them  would  have  been  obliged  to  have  abandoned 
fishing  long  ago.  I should  like  to  see  the  loans  extended 
to  the  other  maritime  counties  where  they  are  not  now 
available,  and  where  they  would  be  a great  boon  to  many. 

Not  so.  The  fisheries  in  and  about  Kenmare 
were  ruined  in  the  famine  year,  and  I have  in 
vain  implored  the  noble  owner  of  vast  estates 
here  to  do  something  to  restore  them. 

“ Liscannor  Station. — From  Spanish  Point  to  Can- 
capple. 

“ Bream,  cod,  and  ling,  are  the  principal  descriptions  of  fish 
captured  ; canoes  only  employed.  Lobsters  and  crabs  were 
taken  in  a small  quantity  this  year.  They  abound  on  the 
coast,  but  the  difficulty  of  getting  them  to  market  is  the 
great  drawback  to  any  improvement.  No  steps  have  been 
as  yet  taken  to  remove  the  rock  which  is  so  dangerous  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Liscannor  Harbour.  Unguarded — about 
twelve  miles. 

“ The  fishermen  in  the  whole  division  are  reported  to  be 
peaceable  and  orderly. 

“Waterford  Division. — It  is  reported  that  off  Bonma- 
hon  more  mackerel,  bream,  cod,  and  whiting  were  seen,  but 
the  take  was  not  large  owing  to  the  want  of  proper  gear  for 
their  capture. 

“ The  fishermen  are  reported  to  have  been  orderly  and 
well  conducted. 

“ Killybegs  Division. — The  boats,  however,  in  this 
district  are  too  small  for  successful  fishing,  and  the  gear  re- 
quires to  be  better  in  order  to  enable  the  fishermen  to  pur- 
sue their  avocation  at  a greater  distance  from  the  coast. 


Political  Economy  in  Ireland,  405 

“ Ballyshannon  Station. — Bundoran  to  Eske  River, 
Donegal,  about  thirty  miles ; unguarded  nearly  the  whole 
coast. 

“ Herrings,  mackerel,  cod,  ling,  plaice,  whiting,  and  bream 
are  the  fish  taken.  Small  shoals  only  of  herrings  and 
mackerel  appeared  this  year  a quarter  to  two  miles  off  the 
shore.  No  quantity  was  captured.  Lobsters  and  crabs 
were  captured  in  good  quantity  at  Kildoney  and  Bunnat- 
roohan.  At  the  latter  place  the  harbour  requires  something 
of  improvement  to  afford  shelter  for  boats.  At  present  it 
is  in  a bad  state  of  repair  and  a great  loss  to  the  fishermen, 
being  their  only  place  of  refuge  on  this  part  of  the  coast. 
The  fishermen  complain  also  that  they  are  not  allowed  to 
reap  any  of  the  advantages  offered  to  fishermen  in  the  neigh- 
bouring county  by  loans  for  repairs  of  boats  and  providing 
suitable  fishing  gear. 

“ In  the  whole  division  the  fishermen  are  peaceable  and 
orderly,  and  no  conflicts. 

“ Belderrig  Station. — From  Brandy  Point  to  Glenul- 
dra,  about  thirty  miles  ; unguarded  about  sixteen  miles. 
Mackerel  is  the  principal  fish  taken,  and  large  shoals  ap- 
peared in  August  and  September  about  two  miles  off  the 
shore,  but  there  were  no  adequate  means  for  their  capture. 
Fishing  only  very  partially  carried  on  on  this  coast. 

“ Portacloy  Station. — The  same  remarks  as  the  former 
station  apply  equally  to  this,  save  that  at  Portacloy  a large 
quantity  of  lobsters  were  taken. 

“ Pullendiva  Station. — Easkey  to  Dunmoran,  about 
thirteen  miles.  Herrings,  mackerel,  and  pollock  are  the 
principal  descriptions  of  fish  taken,  but  herrings  in  the 
largest  quantities.  Several  large  shoals  of  mackerel  ap- 
peared in  Tune  and  July  off  Dromore,  and  herrings  in 
September,  but  very  few  were  taken  in  consequence  of  in- 
sufficient gear.  A very  fair  catch  of  lobsters  took  place. 


406  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated . 

They  were  sent  principally  to  the  Dublin  markets.  It  is  re- 
ported that  there  is  plenty  of  fish  along  this  coast,  but  the 
people  have  not  the  means  to  procuie  boats  and  gear. 

What  need  to  say  more.  Everywhere  the  men 
are  reported  as  peaceable  and  orderly,  anxious 
for  employment,  repaying  thankfully,  even  in 
the  worst  times,  the  miserable  loans  made  to 
them. 

And  yet  we  are  told  the  Irish  are  lazy  and 
will  net  wGrk,  and  that  it  is  no  use  to  do  any- 
thing for  people  who  will  not  help  themselves. 
Waste  Fisheries!  Waste  Lands!  It  is  a 
wrong  record  of  national  injustice.  If  English 
fisheries  were  destroyed  or  injured  by  the  visi- 
tation of  God,  public  subscriptions  would  estab- 
lish them  again,  even  if  Government  failed  to  do 
so. 

Waste  Lands  ! 

At  the  lowest  computation  there  are  two 
millions  of  acres  in  Ireland,  or  one-tenth  of  the 
available  area  of  the  country,  capable  of  recla- 
mation, but  utterly  unreclaimed.  Will  any  one 
believe  that  this  state  of  things  would  be  allowed 
to  continue  in  England  ? where,  as  a matter  of 
fact,  seven  millions  of  acres  have  been  re- 
claimed since  the  time  of  George  III.  But, 
does  anyone  believe  that  there  is  the  smallest 
chance  that  either  a Liberal  or  Conservative  Go- 


Political  Economy  in  Ireland.  407 

vernment  will  take  up  this  question  in  earnest, 
as  the  Irish  people  have  a right  to  expect  ? 

“ Mr.  Brett  is  of  opinion  now,  as  in  1847,  that  public 
employment  should  take  the  form  of  the  reclamation  of 
waste  lands,  together  with  the  encouragement  of  a better 
system  of  husbandry  amongst  the  small  farmers  ; and  I 
understood  it  to  be  his  intention  to  report  to  this  effect  to 
the  Government,  by  whom  he  is  employed  on  special  service 
in  Mayo  at  the  present  time.  His  facts  and  figures  are  of 
paramount  importance  just  now,  since  even  a Land  Bill, 
fashioned  upon  the  lines  of  the  most  pronounced  reformers, 
could  not  bring  any  immediate  accession  of  prosperity  to  a 
population  wanting  ‘ elbow  room,’  so  to  speak,  and  suffering 
from  chronic  starvation  in  consequence  of  such  want. 
Speaking  of  the  waste  lands,  he  observed,  that  there  are  at 
least  four  baronies  in  the  West  which  might  afford  scope  for  an 
early  experiment  in  reclamation,  not  only  without  pecuniary 
loss,  but  with  infinite  economic  gain,  to  the  State,  viz.  : — 

Average  value  per  acre. 

Erris  (Mayo)  ...  232,888  acres  ...  is.  id. 

Boylagh  (Donegal)  158,5 17  „ ...  is.  3d. 

Ballynahinch  (Galway)  194,584  „ ...  is.  4d. 

Ross  (Galway)  ...  98,000  „ ...  is.  5d. 

Mr.  Brett,  whose  long  connection  with  Public  Works  in  Ire- 

land lends  the  weight  of  practical  experience  to  his  opinions, 
is  clearly  convinced  that  the  whole  of  this  enormous  acreage, 
which  includes  neither  deep  bog  nor  mountain  top,  is  capable 
of  complete  reclamation.  And,  moreover,  he  can  point  out, 
he  says,  “ numerous  instances  in  the  Counties  of  Mayo  and 
Sligo,  as  well  as  in  Wicklow  and  Waterford,  of  reclamation 
effected  at  considerable  expense,  where  the  produce  of  the 
lands  in  two  years  defrayed  the  entire  cost  of  outlay.” 


408  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

It  is  a weary  record.  What  need  to  give 
details  or  to  enter  a statement  of  what  every 
one  knows. 

The  Rev.  P.  Logan,  Kilcar,  writes  : — 

“ The  fishermen  had  no  boats  and  no  tackle ; little  work 
was  given  (except  the  making  of  one  road),  and  there  was 
no  harbour  to  protect  the  boats  or  fishermen,  Much  work 
might  be  done  if  means  were  forthcoming ; at  the  best  of 
times  they  cannot  live  on  their  present  small  holdings,  but 
there  is  plenty  of  waste  land  which  wants  cultivating  and 
which  they  ought  to  have,  as  the  land  is  for  the  people.” 

Let  me  turn  to  a pleasanter  theme,  to  prove 
that  if  the  mysterious  “ capitalist,’’  of  whom  we 
hear  so  much  and  see  so  little,  would  only  come 
to  Ireland,  instead  of  talking  about  coming, 
Irish  people  would  be  only  too  thankful  to 
avail  themselves  of  such  openings. 

I have  been  in  correspondence  with  the 
managers  of  the  principal  Irish  industries — the 
Belleek  Potteries,  and  the  Bessbrook  factories. 
Let  me  first  give  Mr.  Tuke’s  report  of  the 
province  : — 

“ We  had  the  great  pleasure  of  seeing  the  Belleek  China 
Works  and  meeting  the  intelligent  and  enterprising  owner 
and  manager,  Mr.  Armstrong,  who,  with  his  partner,  has 
put  ^40,000  into  these  works.  The  “ water  power  ” of  the 
outlet  of  the  lake,  the  felspar,  which  constitutes  73  per 
cent,  of  the  china  turned  out,  and  the  cheapness  of  labour, 


Political  Economy  in  Ireland.  409 

were  the  inducements  twenty  years  ago  for  establishing 
the  works  here.  They  are  now  giving  employment  and 
good  wages,  from  9-f.  to  4 ox.  or  more  a-week,  to  a large 
number  of  people,  representing  1,000  persons  in  all,  and 
these  works  prevent  the  town  of  Belleek  from  being  on  the 
relief  list.  In  addition  to  the  many  pretty  little  articles  of 
Belleek  ware  familiar  to  all,  the  great  turn-out  of  the  place 
is  now  in  sanitary  ware  of  all  kinds.  Jenning’s  and  Tylor’s 
sanitary  ware,  and  Maw’s  inhaling  bottles,  &c.,  are  made  here. 
Mr.  Armstrong  is  a most  ingenious  and  energetic  man,  and 
it  did  one  good  to  find  one  man  really  solving  the  question 
of  Irish  misery  and  discontent  by  giving  full  employment  at 
good  wages,  and  combining  with  this  a strict  and  intelli- 
gent oversight  of  his  people.  Whilst  we  were  going  over 
the  works,  a man  came  up  to  show  him  some  work  he  was 
modelling.  “ Yes,”  he  said,  “as  good  as  I could  wish  it; 
it  is  perfect.”  And,  as  the  man  went  off,  Mr.  A.  said, 
“ Seven  years  ago  that  man  came  to  me  at  5 d.  a-day,  and 
now  he  is  earning  35^.  a-week,  and  on  the  1st  of  April  will 
earn  £2  a-week.” 

The  pottery  works  at  Belleek  began  thus  : — 

Some  twenty-hve  years  ago,  it  was  observed 
that  the  cabin  of  a.  tenant  on  the  estate  of  J ohn 
Caldwell  Bloomfield,  Esq.,  of  Castle  Caldwell, 
had  been  adorned  by  an  unusually  brilliant  coat 
of  white-wash.  On  being  spoken  to  on  the 
subject,  the  peasant  explained  that  he  had 
lighted  on  an  old  lime-pit,  or  a supply  of 
“ naturally  burned  lime.”  Mr.  Bloomfield,  tak- 
ing an  interest  in  a production  of  nature,  had 


4-10  The  Case  of  I rela7id  stated. 

the  spot  examined  ; and,  in  consequence  of  what 
he  found,  had  borings  made  in  different  parts 
of  his  estate,  which  disclosed  the  existence  of  a 
wide  stratum  of  fine  white  earth.  On  chemical 
examination  at  Dublin,  this  earth  proved  to  be 
a species  of  Kaolin — a felspathic  clay,  similar  to 
that  which  forms  the  “ bones,”  or  interior,  infu- 
sible, portion  of  Chinese  porcelain.  Other  mate- 
rials, Mr.  Bloomfield  was  informed,  were  neces- 
sary to  be  procured,  in  order  to  establish  a 
manufacture  of  pottery  from  this  china-clay  ; but 
it  proved,  not  unnaturally,  that  the  description 
of  felspathic  earth  which  is  fusible,  and  which  in 
China,  under  the  name  of  pet-un-ze,  forms  the 
“ flesh  ” or  flux  of  the  porcelain,  was  also  to  be 
found  on  his  estate,  together  with  many  other 
valuable  minerals. 

This  china-clay  and  the  felspar  were  sent  to 
Mr.  R.  W.  Armstrong,  then  residing  in  London, 
with  the  view  of  having  them  practically  tested. 
After  the  lapse  of  a few  years,  during  which 
time  Mr.  Armstrong  repeatedly  visited  Castle 
Caldwell,  and  had  a number  of  trials,  and  arti- 
cles made  from  the  clay,  felspar,  white  quartz, 
&c.,  at  the  Royal  Porcelain  Works,  Worcester, 
by  the  zealous  co-operation  of  Mr.  W.  H.  Kerr, 
who  was  then  one  of  the  proprietors  of  the 
Worcester  Works.  That  gentleman,  as  an 


Political  Economy  in  Ireland.  41 1 

Irishman,  entered  fully  into  Mr.  Armstrong’s 
desire  of  having  the  quality  of  the  Irish  material 
tested  and  tried  in  every  way,  with  the  ultimate 
object  of  establishing  an  Irish  pottery,  if  such 
could  be  commercially  done.  These  trials  and 
testings  were  afterwards  submitted  by  Mr.  Arm- 
strong to  his  friend,  Mr.  D.  M'Birney,  of  Dublin, 
a merchant  of  standing  and  well-known  enter- 
prise, who  ultimately,  in  1857,  embarked  with 
Mr.  Armstrong  in  the  practical  trial  of  produc- 
ing first-class  ceramic  goods  in  Ireland,  com- 
posed largely  of  Irish  materials,  and  made  by 
Irish  labour  on  Irish  soil ; and  these  gentlemen 
are  now  owners  of  the  Works,  trading  under 
the  firm  of  D.  M‘Birney  & Co. 

[In  the  interior,  the  factory  bears  all  the 
appearance  of  business  and  bustle.  Enormous 
grinding-mills,  in  which  the  raw  material  is  pre- 
pared for  the  hands  of  the  artisan,  rumble  and 
roar,  driven  by  the  irresistible  and  constant 
power  of  a large  water-wheel ; the  furnaces  of 
the  great  ovens,  in  which  the  moulded  clay  is 
baked,  hiss  and  scream,  as  if  striving  to  undo 
the  noble  work  for  a time  committed  to  their 
care  ; while,  when  we  leave  turmoil  and  din  and 
turn  into  the  workshop,  the  lathes  and  turning- 
plates  whiz  noiselessly  round,  as  the  soft,  putty- 
like clay  is  being  deftly  moulded  by  the  skilled 


412  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated. 

workman  into  many  beautiful  designs.  To 
minutely  particularise  the  numerous  operations 
carried  on  in  this  factory  would  be  simply  to 
describe  the  various  details  of  the  potters  art, 
from  the  time  the  china-clay  and  felspar  are 
brought  into  the  factory  in  their  raw  state,  until 
they  leave  it,  in  the  form  of  porcelain,  china, 
and  stone-ware,  of  the  most  exquisite  and 
chaste  patterns.] 

“Within  easy  distances  are  to  be  found  very 
fine  and  promising  indications  of  lead,  copper, 
all  the  felspars,  orthoclose,  oligoclose,  quartz, 
various  micas,  albite,  syenite,  sphene  rock, 
schorl,  soapstone,  serpentine  marbles,  as  well  as 
fossil  encrinite  and  black  marbles,  sulphate  of 
barotes,  and,  near  the  felspar  districts  on  the 
Castle  Caldwell  Estates,  molybdenite,  in  the 
oligoclose  veins  near  Garvary.” 

We  now  turn  to  another  class  of  industry 
which  has  not  been  less  successful. 

Bessbrook,  near  Newry  and  Rostrevor,  in 
the  north  of  Ireland,  has  long  been  famed  for 
its  factories  established  by  Mr.  Richardson. 

The  number  of  its  inhabitants  is  now  nearly 
4,000,  and  there  has  never  been  any  house  for 
the  sale  of  intoxicating  drinks.  It  is,  perhaps, 
the  oldest  place  in  Ireland  connected  with  the 
flax  spinning  and  weaving  trades,  and  at  the 


Political  Economy  in  Ireland.  4 1 3 

present  time  the  people  mainly  depend  on  this 
industry  for  support.  The  head  of  the  firm,  to 
whom  the  mills  and  factories  belong,  is  John 
Grubb  Richardson,  an  eminent  member  of  the 
Society  of  Friends,  and  a strong  supporter  of 
the  Temperance  movement.  He  is  the  owner 
of  the  surrounding  property,  and  under  his  fos- 
tering care  the  place  has  grown  from  a few  huts 
to  its  present  size  and  interesting  character  as  a 
model  town . It  is  a c/aiet,  isolated  spot,  and 
has  made  its  mark  in  the  history  of  the  Linen 
T rade. 

Every  family  in  the  place  has  one  or  more  of 
its  members  engaged  in  the  mill,  which  produces 
family  linens,  damasks  of  the  best  designs, 
pocket-handkerchiefs,  and  many  other  articles 
into  which  linen  yarns  can  be  woven. 

It  is  said  that  no  town  in  Ireland  below 
10,000  of  a population  can  support  a book-shop. 
In  Bessbrook  one  exists,  of  no  small  importance, 
which,  combined  with  a lending  library,  fulfils  a 
useful  purpose,  and  is  very  well  supported. 

Undisturbed  by  the  evil  consequences  of 
strong  drink , more  care  is  bestowed  on  the 
quality  of  goods  produced  ; and  this,  while  re- 
paying the  proprietors  for  their  paternal  over- 
sight, is  indirectly  of  advantage  to  the  purchaser 
also.  The  Bessbrook  linens  have  long  borne 


414  The  Case  of  Ireland  stated, 

the  highest  repute  in  the  best  markets  of  the 
world,  and  can  be  relied  on  as  genuine  when 
the  engraving  of  the  Works  with  the  word 
“ Bessbrook  ” is  printed  on  the  band. 

The  Bessbrook  damasks  have  earned  the 
reputation  of  being  the  finest  ever  made  by 
machinery.  In  this  branch  of  manufacture  the 
people  of  Bessbrook  stand  unrivalled,  and  have 
succeeded  in  weaving  table-cloths,  by  power- 
loom  machinery,  equal  to  the  finest  made  in 
hand-looms. 

Large  employment  is  also  given  in  the  work- 
ing of  granite  quarries,  the  stone  being  of  a 
special  quality,  and  largely  used  in  public 
buildings. 

Thus  we  see  that  when  factories  are  estab- 
lished in  Ireland  they  succeed,  and  when  fish- 
eries are  helped  ever  so  little  they  prosper.  It 
is  time,  then,  to  have  an  end  of  all  idle  talk 
about  Irish  laziness,  or  about  this  wonderful 
capitalist  who  is  always  coming,  and  never 
comes. 

The  two  capitalists,  Mr.  Richardson,  of  Bess- 
brook, and  Mr.  Armstrong,  of  Beleek,  who  have 
come,  have  succeeded  even  for  these  interests, 
and  they  claim  and  receive  the  thanks  of  a 
people  always  grateful,  when  they  have  even 
the  least  solid  cause  for  gratitude. 


APPENDIX. 


Effort  of  tfjo  trials 

OF 

GERARD  O’CONNOR,  Rev.  ANDREW 
O’SULLIVAN,  JEREMIAH  O’CONNOR, 
And  WM.  M‘CARTHY, 

AT  THE  KERRY  ASSIZES, 

Held  at  Tralee  on  the  18th  October , 1832, 

FOR  CONSPIRING  TO  RESIST  THE  PAYMENT  OF  TITHES  4ND 
EXCITING  THE  PEOPLE  TO  THAT  EFFECT, 

WITH  THE  SPEECH  OF 

ME,  O’CONNELL 

IN  DEFENCE  OF  THE  TRAVERSERS. 


The  traversers  were  arraigned  on  Thursday,  18th  October, 
upon  an  indictment,  containing  twenty  counts,  charging 
them,  in  various  forms,  with  having  conspired  to  resist  the 
payment  of  tithes  in  the  parish  of  O’Dorney,  as  well  as  in 
the  whole  of  Ireland ; with  having  incited  the  King’s  sub- 
jects to  enter  into  illegal  combinations  against  the  payment 
of  tithes;  and  with  having  incited  the  subjects  not  to  pay 
tithes  either  to  the  clergy  of  the  Established  Church  or  the 
lay  impropriators.  The  Traversers  pleaded  not  guilty  to  all 

b 2 


11 


A ppendix. 


these  counts,  and  tendered  a traverse  in prox.  A lengthened 
discussion  now  arose  between  the  counsel  on  both  sides  as 
to  the  right  of  the  prisoners  to  traverse.  Several  authorities 
were  cited  by  Messrs.  O’Connell,  Gibson,  and  Pigott.  We 
profess  not  to  give  a report  of  the  argument  on  this  point, 
so  uninteresting  to  all  but  professional  persons,  and  we 
accordingly  insert  the  rule  of  the  Crown  book,  inserted 
upon  his  lordship  refusing  to  allow  the  traverse. 

His  lordship,  upon  refusing  the  application,  was  moved  by 
the  learned  counsel  to  take  note  of  the  objection,  and  soon 
after  a note  to  the  following  effect  was  filed  with  the  Clerk 
of  the  Crown  : — 

The  traversers,  Gerard  O’Connor,  the  Rev.  Andrew 
O’Sullivan,  Jeremiah  O’Connor,  and  William  Stack  M‘Carthy, 
having  been  called  on  to  appear,  and  the  indictment  having 
been  read,  and  upon  hearing  the  same,  and  upon  view  and 
inspection  of  their  several  recognizances  ( prout ),  they 
tender  a traverse  in  prox  to  the  whole  of  said  indictment, 
and  two  sureties  for  each  of  them  to  appear  and  abide  trial 
according  to  such  tender  of  traverse,  which  traverse  the 
Court  was  pleased  to  reject ; and  thereupon  said  traversers 
tender  a traverse  in  prox  to  each  count,  seriatum , of  said 
indictment,  and  two  sureties  for  each  of  them,  to  appear 
and  abide  trial  according  to  such  last- mentioned  tendered 
traverse,  which  last-mentioned  traverse  the  Court  is  pleased 
to  reject,  and  thereupon  said  traversers  plead  Not  Guilty  to 
the  whole  of  said  indictment,  and  tender  a traverse  in  prox 
to  the  whole  of  said  indictment,  and  two  sureties  for  each 
of  them,  to  abide  trial  according  to  said  last  mentioned 
tender  of  traverse,  which  last  mentioned  traverse  the  Court 
is  pleased  to  reject  ; and  thereupon  the  said  traversers 
tender  a traverse  in  prox  to  each  count  of  said  indictment, 
seriatim , and  two  sureties  for  each  of  them  to  abide  trial, 
according  to  said  last-mentioned  tender  of  traverse;  and 


A ppendix. 


in 


which  said  last-mentioned  traverse  the  Court  was  pleased  to 
reject.” 

The  following  gentlemen  were  then  sworn  on  the  jury 
after  three  changes  by  the  Crown  : — 


Counsel  for  the  Crown — George  Bennett,  Stephen  Woulfe, 
and  J.  Rutherford,  Esqrs. 

Counsel  for  the  traversers — Daniel  O’Connell,  John 
Gibson,  and  D.  R.  Pigott,  Esqrs. 

Messrs.  Daniel  Supple  and  Maurice  Leonard,  Agents. 

Giles  Sullivan,  sergeant  of  police,  cross-examined  by  Mr. 
O’Connell — Is  sergeant  since  the  formation  of  the  police ; 
could  not  help  being  a regular  and  excellent  reporter ; 
Jeremiah  O’Connor  advised  the  people  not  to  violate  the 
law ; did  not  recollect  this  when  on  his  direct  examination 
because  he  was  not  asked ; remembered  the  varnish,  shins, 
and  marrow,  but  not  this ; took  no  note  only  what  struck 
him ; said  nothing  in  his  information  about  it ; the  magis- 
trates instructed  him  to  tell  everything  contrary  to  law,  what 
he  thought  treason,  and  not  to  mind  telling  them  anything 
but  the  treason — (a  laugh) — the  magistrates  were  Colonels 
Stoughton  and  Crosby,  Rev.  J.  Chute,  and  Oliver  Mason ; 
swore  three  minutes  ago  through  mistake  that  “ he  recol- 
lected nothing  else ; is  sergeant  of  police ; five  policemen 
were  in  O'Dorney;  saw  cows  at  Ballyduff;  they  were  not 
sold ; the  magistrates  swore  him  to  tell  the  truth  so  far  as 
the  informations  ; got  a message  from  Colonel  Stoughton  to 
go  to  O’Dorney;  thinks,  but  is  not  positive  that  M‘Carthy 
advised  the  people  to  keep  the  peace ; never  heard  the  cow 


Robert  Hilliard, 
Kean  Mahony, 


Dominick  Rice, 
James  M£Carthy, 


William  M.  Chute, 
William  Blennerhassett 


William  Hilliard, 

Francis  Twiss, 

John  Hilliard, 

Alexander  Elliot, 

Jas.  Wm.  Raymond,  and 
William  Collis,  Esqrs. 


IV 


A ppendix . 


was  a widow’s  cow ; was  examined  more  than  once ; was 
sworn  twice  ; recollects  not  whether  examined  three  times ; 
was  sworn  a third  time  ; remarked  to  J.  O’Connor  that 
M‘Carthy  said  nothing  offensive  at  Ballyduff ; advised 
O’C.  not  to  use  insulting  language ; did  not  swear  about 
the  3rd  at  all. 

Adam  Firrell,  a policeman,  sworn  — Saw  Jeremiah 
O’Connor  on  a grey  horse  at  Ardfert,  followed  by  about  150 
persons  ; heard  him  say  the  password  of  every  man  should 
be  “ down  with  the  tithes,”  and  advise  the  people  not  to 
fight  among  themselves ; saw  him  parade  with  a brand  five 
inches  long,  several  persons  following. 

James  Godfrey,  a policeman,  being  sworn,  said — About 
three  hundred  persons  were  assembled  on  the  16th  July  at 
the  tithe  meeting;  saw  Gerard  O’Connor  there;  heard  him 
make  a speech,  in  which  he  advised  the  people  to  stand 
heart  and  hand  together,  and  that  no  person  should  bid  for 
cattle  distrained  for  tithes  ; saw  the  Rev.  Mr.  O’Sullivan 
there  ; heard  him  tell  the  people  not  to  pay  tithe,  but  to 
allow  their  cattle  to  be  sold,  and  that  none  ought  to  bid ; 
heard  J.  O’Connor  desire  the  people  from  the  platform  to 
allow  their  cattle  to  be  sold,  and  to  hold  no  conversation 
with  the  pound  keeper  of  O’Dorney  for  not  giving  up  the 
cattle  for  tithe,  if  he  did  not  excuse  himself ; heard  him  also 
advise  the  people  not  to  drink,  and  not  to  violate  the  peace; 
heard  M‘Carthy  advise  them  not  to  pay  tithe ; J.  O’Connor 
held  up  a tumbler  and  said  it  contained  water — (“  that’s  a 
conspirator,”  observed  Mr.  O’Connell) ; did  not  drink  the 
entire  of  the  glass  (laughter) ; Mr.  M‘Carthy  desired  the 
people  to  assemble  on  the  25th;  witness  saw  him  on  the 
2 1st  at  O’Dorney;  he  (Mr.  M‘C.)  told  the  people  to  take 
care  of  Paddy  M‘Kews ; “ here,”  said  he,  “ are  the  cattle, 
but  where  are  the  bidders?” 

Cross-examined  by  Mr.  O’Connell — Recollects  hearing 


A ppendix. 


v 


Mr.  McCarthy  say  to  the  people,  “ it  was  not  by  holding 
illegal  meetings  in  the  solitude  of  night,  but  by  constitutional 
meetings  only  they  would  succeed.”  (Mr.  O’Connell  read 
this  passage,  among  others  of  Mr.  M‘Carthy’s  speech,  from 
the  Tralee  Mercury , to  refresh  the  memory  of  the  witness.) 
Witness  admitted  the  delivery  of  these  words  was  followed 
by  the  cheers  of  the  meeting ; he  swore  informations  before 
Captain  Bowles ; did  not  include  these  words  ; did  not  re-- 
collect  them  until  reminded  of  them  now  : has  been  serjeant 
of  police  for  nine  years  ; was  formerly  a private  in  the  Mil- 
town  Yeomanry  or  dismounted  cavalry  ; was  in  the  Miltown 
corps  when  the  three  Murphys  offered  to  fight  the  whole 
corps  (great  laughter) ; was  not  afraid  of  the  Murphys ; is 
very  fond  of  boiled  Murphys  (a  laugh);  is  now  a serjeant; 
would  not  like  that  any  one  should  call  him  a corporal  (a 
laugh) ; did  hear  some  threats  offered  to  one  of  the  traversers 
at  the  sale  at  O’Dorney  ; O’Connor,  the  policeman, 
threatened  one  of  them. 

J.  Coffee,  policeman,  swore  he  was  present  at  the  meeting 
at  O’Dorney  on  the  15  th  of  July  ; from  two  to  three  thousand 
persons  were  there  ; heard  J.  O’Connor  describe  to  the 
people,  in  Irish,  what  the  tyrants’  carriages  were  composed 
of — that  the  springs  were  made  of  the  sinews  of  their  limbs 
and  the  paint  of  the  sweat  of  their  brows;  by  tyrants  were 
meant  those  who  enforced  the  payment  of  tithes  ; heard  him 
say  Paddy  M‘Kew  was  at  hand.  This  witness  being  cross- 
examined,  said  Serjeant  Godfrey  was  at  O’Dorney  on  the 
15th  ; O’C.  desired  the  people  to  keep  the  peace  and  not 
violate  the  law. 

E.  Sullivan,  policeman,  swore  he  heard  J.  O’Connor  say 
he  was  the  first  to  oppose  tithes,  and  .that  he  had  a number 
at  his  back  ; that  the  people  should  be  as  a bundle  of  rods ; 
when  Mr.  O’Sullivan  observed  the  parsons  would  not  give 
up  their  livings  as  easily  as  the  people  thought,  O’Connor 


VI 


Appendix . 


said  they  (the  parsons)  should  give  them  up;  witness  saw 
W.  S.  McCarthy  at  the  meeting  ; he  (Mr.  M‘ Car  thy)  used  the 
words  “large  letters  of  blood;”  something  was  said  about 
parsons’  children,  such  as  “ weeds  of  a garden,  or  devils  out 
of  hell ;”  can’t  remember  half  what  was  said. 

D.  O’Connor,  policeman,  gave  the  same  testimony  as  the 
preceding  witness ; there  were  from  two  to  three  thousand 
persons  present ; that  J.  O’Connor  advised  the  people  not 
to  oppose  the  laws;  that  Mr.  O’Connor  being  a classical 
scholar  witness  could  not  translate  what  he  said  ; J. 
O’Connor  also  preached  peace  and  temperance ; said  he 
was  one  of  the  first  who  opposed  tithes,  and  he  thanked 
God  he  had  a great  number  that  day  to  back  him ; that  the 
people  should  stick  together  like  a bundle  of  rods,  and  that 
they  could  be  put  down  (the  carriages,  with  their  appur- 
tenances, saying  as  above),  saying  their  enemies  were  about 
them  ; witness  heard  M‘Carthy  warn  the  people  of  two 
baronies  to  attend  on  the  25th,  adding  “who'll  purchase?” 
This  witness  was  not  cross-examined. 

The  evidence  for  the  prosecution  having  closed,  the 
Court  consented,  at  the  request  of  counsel  on  both  sides,  to 
adjourn  to  the  following  day.  The  jury  were  in  the  mean- 
time enlarged. 

“ Mr.  O’Connell — Gentlemen  of  the  Jury,  I-'say  with  the 
most  perfect  confidence,  there  is  not  one  particle  of  evidence 
in  this  case  on  which  to  ground  a verdict  of  guilty  against 
the  Traversers.  This  I undertake  to  demonstrate.  I say, 
suppose  every  word  true  that  was  sworn  by  the  witnesses  (a 
position  which  I will  not  admit),  you  could  not  legally  or 
conscientiously  find  a verdict  of  guilty.  Two  things  are  in- 
dispensably necessary  upon  which  to  ground  your  verdict — 
credit  and  accuracy ; the  accuracy  of  a witness  is  just  as 
important  to  find  a verdict  on  as  his  credit,  without  both  you 
cannot  as  conscientious  men  find  a verdict  of  conviction. 


Appendix. 


vll 


Good  God  ! are  we  in  Algiers  ? are  we  in  a region  of  slavery  ? 
T arraign  this  prosecution — I arraign  the  Anglesey  Adminis- 
tration— 

“Judge  Moore — Mr.  O'Connell,  I must  not — 

“ Mr.  O’Connell — My  Lord,  I reiterate  it,  I arraign  this 
as  a base  and  audacious  attempt  to  put  down  public  opinion, 
and  trample  in  the  dust  such  as  dare  be  free.  I will  venture 
to  say,  there  is  not  one  man  in  that  jury  box,  be  his  com- 
prehension ever  so  limited — but  must  acknowledge  from  the 
argument  of  yesterday,  the  right  of  my  clients  to  traverse  in 
prox,  not  to  postpone  their  trial  to  another  assizes.  But 
that  right  I do  not  rely  on  ; I fling  it  overboard,  I rest  on 
the  plain  indisputable  fact,  that  there  is  not  an  iota  of  what 
was  sworn  which  can  be  tortured  into  legal  evidence  against 
the  traversers.  Mr  Bennett  was  pleased  in  his  truly  able 
speech  to  pass  an  unmerited  eulogium  on  me  ; I do  him  full 
credit  for  his  kind  opinion,  not  from  the  vanity  of  supposing 
I deserve  it ; but  from  the  private  friendship  which  I have 
ever  entertained  for  him.  The  learned  gentleman  says  he  is 
not  a politician,  notwithstanding  his  political,  powerful,  but 
at  the  same  time,  as  was  his  duty,  his  most  artful  and  insinu- 
ating speech. — Yes,  gentlemen,  I maintain  in  that  speech  he 
urged*  topics  that  did  not  belong  to  such  a prosecution — 
topics  he  was  not  entitled  to  use — and  as  an  Irish  Barrister, 
he  should  not  use.  In  this  able  and  powerful  address,  many 
things  were  stated  in  explanation  of  the  object  of  this  pro- 
secution. Among  other  things  it  was  put  on  public  grounds. 
This  is  a mere  delusion ; I say  the  object  is  not  the  protec- 
tion of  property,  but  the  destruction  of  liberty ; it  is  a foul 
conspiracy,  not  a protection  — conspiracy  by  those  whose 
fixed  determination  appears  to  be,  to  trample  on  the  rights 
of  the  subject.  How  can  a series  of  meetings,  independent 
of,  and  unconnected  with  each  other,  amount  to  conspiracy  ? 
The  learned  gentleman  mixes  up  tithes  with  rents,  claims  of 


appendix. 


viir 

individuals  with  individual  property,  talked  of  convulsions, 
volcanoes,  eruptions,  infant  torrents  and  huge  precipices. 
The  object  of  his  statement  was  to  shew  that  this  prosecu- 
tion was  tending  to  tranquilize  the  country.  I deny  it ! to 
put  an  end  to  disturbance  and  disaffection  in  this  country  ! 
Where  is  the  disaffection  ; where  the  disturbance  ? Are  the 
means  of  obtaining  constitutional  redress,  the  prerogative  of 
the  subject,  to  be  misconstrued  into  disturbance  and  dis- 
affection? No  man  can  be  deemed  guilty  of  disturbance, 
or  disaffection,  who  loudly  exclaims  to  his  oppressed  fellow- 
countrymen,  “ Rally,  my  friends ; show  that  your  country  is 
tranquil,  shew  perfect  submission  to  the  laws,  and  put  not 
yourselves  in  your  enemies’  power  !’  ” Was  not  this  the  very 
essence  of  the  meeting,  for  which  my  clients  are  now 
arraigned  ? did  they  not  show  perfect  submission  to  the  law  ? 
Remember,  Gentlemen,  that  the  meeting  which. was  to  have 
taken  place  on  the  25th  of  July,  never  took  place:  not  one 
meeting  was  held  after  the  15th  ! Why?  because  Gossett’s 
letter  was  circulated  through  this  country  on  the  16th,  in  the 
Tralee  Mercury  : that  was  the  first  intimation  of  the  illegality 
of  those  meetings  which  this  county  had,  and  it  was  met  by 
perfect  submission  ; not  one  meeting  since  ! What  stronger 
argument  can  be  adduced  to  disprove  the  intention  of  con- 
spiracy, and  show  a determination  of  obedience  to  the  law? 
Yes,  but  it  is  said  the  law  was  outraged  before  the  16th. 
Suppose  that  for  argument ; our  plea  is,  we  were  ignorant 
of  the  law  ; some  of  the  heads  of  the  government  were  the 
same.  If  the  mind  be  not  disposed  to  evil,  there  is  no  crime 
— ‘‘Non  est  reus  si  mens  non  est  real  Here  the  strongest 
popular  feeling  was  allayed,  and  sunk  in  perfect  obedience 
to  the  law. — Nay,  more,  according  to  Godfrey’s  evidence, 
the  people  gave  up  their  meetings,  which  were  held  to  petition , 
to  petition  the  legislature,  cheerfully  and  readily.  Mr.  Bennett 

said  that  this  prosecution  was  to  protect  private  as  well  as 


A ppendix. 


IX 


public,  property  : “ if  tithes  were  abolished,  rents  could  no 
longer  be  recovered.”  This  I also  deny ; emphatically 
deny ; — there  is  no  analogy  between  them.  For  rent  a per- 
son will  get  some  value,  sometimes,  indeed,  very  little — • 
especially  from  the  grinding  agent  of  an  absentee  landlord 
— but,  yet,  something  is  given  ; but  no  value  for  tithes.  He 
wished  you  to  confound  the  sacred  rights  of  private  property, 
which  men  enter  into  society  to  protect,  with  the  property 
of  a corporation,  which  has  been  altered  by  the  legislature 
before,  and  which  may  be  so  again,  whenever  the  necessities  of 
the  State  require  it.  Let  me  put  a case  ; suppose  Catholicism 
the  established  religion  of  this  kingdom.  In  a parish  in  this 
county  there  are  12,498  Protestants  and  50  Catholics,  even 
those  50  not  regularly  attended  by  their  pastor,  who  visits 
them  only  in  the  shearing  season,  for  the  purpose  of  fleecing 
the  flock.  There  you  see  the  majority  are  Protestants, 
(though  the  fact  is  vice  versa).  Now,  I ask,  when  those 
Protestants  felt  they  derived  no  benefit  from  their  Popish 
rector,  who  discharged  his  sacred  duties,  perhaps,  by  deputy ; 
who  gave  no  value,  except  by  importing  English  dairy- 
maids, to  make  bad  butter — (a  laugh) — I ask  you,  gentlemen, 
would  not  this  great  Protestant  majority  be  justified  in  com- 
bining to  get  rid  of  such  a system?  For  my  part,  I never 
will  voluntarily  pay  tithes ; such,  my  determination,  shall 
never  be  shaken  by  a side-wind  prosecution  of  this  kind.  I 
make  this  declaration  fearlessly.  I canvass  the  freeholders 
of  this  great  county,  on  the  principle  of  this  my  avowed  hos- 
tility to  the  tithe  system.  You,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  have 
a high  duty  to  perform ; you  have  to  exercise  your  judg- 
ments, I hope,  unbiassed  by  prejudice,  upon  the  guilt  or 
innocence  of  the  traversers.  Oh ! the  blessings  attending 
that  bulwark  of  the  liberty  of  the  subject,  the  trial  by 
jury  ! In  former  times,  what  miseries  have  been  consequent 
on  the  want  of  this  most  excellent  system  ! The  want  of 


X 


Appendix . 


knowledge  of  the  juror,  formerly,  alone,  caused  a most  right- 
eous judge,  nine  times,  to  turn  back  a jury — for  what?  be- 
cause they  would  not  convict  a person  arraigned  for  having 
published  a pamphlet,  recommending  to  the  people  of 
Ireland  the  use  of  Irish  manufactures.  And  yet,  the  trial  by 
jury,  though  the  great  safeguard  of  the  liberty  of  the  subject, 
has  its  defects  : one  prejudiced  man  may  prevent  a good 
verdict ; but  one  honest  man  may  prevent  a bad  one.  I dare 
say,  there  are  many  conscientious  men  in  Spain,  who  wish 
to  see  the  inquisition,  the  horrible  inquisition  restored. 
There  are  many  honoured  men  in  this  country,  who  hold  it 
as  their  conscientious  opinion,  that  things  should  undergo 
no  change ; others  of  a different  opinion  ; but  each  man  in 
that  jury-box  is  responsible  to  his  God,  and  the  prejudice  of 
one  is  counteracted  by  the  honesty  of  the  other.  It  is  not 
illegal  to  look  for  the  extinction  of  tithes.  How  can  it  be 
so,  when  that  sentence  is  pronounced  already  against  them 
by  government  ? I speak  in  the  spirit  of  that  feeling  which 
swells  my  bosom  as  the  representative  of  this  great  county. 
I address  myself  to  freeholders ; claim  their  votes,  and  assert 
it  is  the  essence  of  political  honesty  to  agitate  any  question 
tending  to  the  extinction  of  this  odious  impost,  and  still 
agitate  until  it  be  totally  abolished. 

“But  when  I say  this,  I do  not  mean  to  say,  I should 
ever  advocate  the  depriving  the  many  worthy  men  who  have 
devoted  their  youth  to  study,  their  lives  and  energies  to 
preaching  the  gospel,  of  the  means  of  subsistence.  God 
forbid  I should  advocate  such  a system.  No  ! I would  give 
them  full  compensation.  Never  be  it  said  I should  advo- 
cate the  spoliation  of  the  tender  wife,  the  friendless  children, 
and  drive  the  wretched  father  forth  to  a merciless  world,  a 
prey  to  poverty  and  biting  indigence.  No ! I would  have 
their  situation  rendered  even  more  comfortable  than  it  is. 
I would  place  them  so  as  that  they  may  be  enabled  to 


A ppendix. 


xi 


devote  more  of  their  time  to  their  sacred  duties,  to  remove 
their  thoughts  and  feelings  from  the  passing  interests  of  tem- 
poral, to  the  higher,  and  to  them  more  natural  walks  of  spiri- 
tual avocation.  Indeed,  the  Globe  of  last  night,  the  organ 
of  the  Ministry,  declares,  that  there  is  something  in  contem- 
plation for  the  extinction  of  tithes.  The  government,  how- 
ever, appears  to  be  under  the  influence  of  two  antagonist 
principles,  one  of  good,  and  the  other  of  evil.  They  have 
revived  the  system  of  the  Manicheans,  who  worship  their 
God  of  justice  and  of  injustice.  At  one  time  they  bid  us 
‘agitate,  agitate,  agitate,’  and  then  turn  round  on  us  for 
doing  to-day  what  they  themselves  recommended  yesterday. 
Mr.  Bennett  dwelt  on  agitation  and  conspiracy.  My  learned 
friend  read  from  a newspaper,  sentences  importing  to  be  the 
opinions  delivered  by  Baron  Smyth.  Now,  my  conviction 
is,  that  Baron  Smyth  never  said  a word  of  what  that  paper 
attributed  to  him.  More  absurd  propositions  were  never 
uttered.  I will  read  this  passage  from  Lord  Plunket.  (Here 
the  learned  gentleman  read  a passage  from  the  speech  of 
3rd  July,  contained  in  the  Southern  Reporter .)  Now  here 
is  an  article  published  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Chancellor 
of  Ireland.  Thus,  it  is  not  illegal  to  assemble,  not  illegal 
not  to  pay  tithes ; and,  yet,  we  have  these  spies  of  magiste- 
rial inquisitors  parading  the  county,  and  military  marching, 
until  pigs  and  cows  are  frightened  at  the  very  name  of  a red 
coat.  In  England,  no  popular  candidate  comes  forward 
without  pledging  himself  to  advocate  the  extinction  of  tithes. 
To  say  then  that  a whole  nation  had  conspired,  must  be 
considered  an  absurdity.  Why,  no  change  of  any  grievance 
can  take  place  without  inquiry.  For  the  sake  of  argument, 
we  will  take  the  circumstances  of  the  Reformation.  How 
can  the  principle  of  the  Reformation  be  defended,  if  church 
property  be  inalienable  ? The  English  transferred  that  pro- 
perty from  the  Catholic  clergy  to  the  Protestant,  because 


Xll 


Appendix. 


they  preferred  the  latter.  This  would  never  have  occurred 
if  they  could  get  a jury  to  send  to  gaol  those  that  would 
advocate  the  protection  of  public  property,  and  s£  deprive 
the  people  of  England  of  that  right.  But,  perhaps,  it  may 
be  argued,  that  the  law  is  not  to  be  disputed  in  England, 
though  it  might  in  Ireland.  Can  you,  gentlemen  of  the 
jury,  say,  individually  or  collectively,  that  tithes  are  not  a 
fit  subject  for  alteration  in  both  countries?  If  you  decide 
so,  if  the  right  be  not  recognised,  then  the  Rev.  Mr.  Denry 
should  hand  over  his  tithes  to  Dr.  M‘Ennery.  This  was  the 
system  a few  years  past,  when  unjust  laws  against  Catholicism 
prevailed,  commonly  known  by  the  name  of  the  Penal  Laws , 
when  you,  John,  could  be  metamorphosed  into  Giles. 
When,  if  a Catholic  was  in  possession  of  ^20,000  by  filing  a 
bill  of  discovery  against  him,  a Protestant  could  deprive  him 
of  it.  If  the  Attorney-General  could  then  put  down  the 
people  who  dare  exclaim  against  this  most  abominable  law 
— if  a struggle  was  not  then  made  to  rescue  the  people  from 
this  gross  oppression — if  police  scraps  and  patches  of  evi- 
dence were  then  admissible,  what  would  have  become  of  the 
liberty  of  the  subject?  Oh  ! let  every  man  forget  such  prin- 
ciples ; let  each  man  devote  himself  to  the  cause  of  justice ; 
let  not  the  voice  of  a nation  be  smothered,  that  ought,  that 
can,  and  that  shall  be  free.  The  scissors  of  the  Attorney- 
General,  forsooth,  lops  off  those  means  of  one  reformation 
by  which  another  has  been  effected.  The  means  by  which 
the  Reform  Bill  was  carried  in  England,  cannot  have  escaped 
your  minds.  When  300,000  men  were  ready  to  march  to 
London,  where  was  the  Attorney-General  then  ? where 
the  Colonel  and  the  Police  ? The  Colonel  asked  me 
to  tell  what  was  bad — ‘Tell  only  what  you  thought  was 
treason,’  says  the  Colonel.  I appeal  to  all  men  of  sense,  to 
gentlemen,  to  Christians,  if  such  a proceeding  was  not 
opposed  to  reason  and  justice.  Oh  ! let  me  not  find  you 


AppencCix, 


xiii 


forgetting  that  you  are  independent,  conscientious  men.  Let 
it  not  be  said  that  you  found  a verdict  against  the  traversers, 
because  there  was  some  little  Protestant  prejudice  existing 
among  you. 

“ Before  I come  to  canvass  the  credit  and  accuracy  of  the 
witnesses,  let  me  once  more  premise  to  you,  there  is  not  one 
particle  of  legal  evidence.  It  is  not  unknown  to  you,  that 
Kerry  was  the  last  county  in  which  these  meetings  were 
held.  You  have  them  in  Kildare,  in  Meath,  Kilkenny 
and  other  counties,  with  their  deputy  lieutenants,  their 
magistrates,  their  police,  and  their  Paddy  M‘Kews  to  boot. 
Kerry  is  the  last.  Government  allows  them  to  go  on — 
sanctions  them.  Be  not  the  tools,  then,  of  those  persecu- 
tors, who  would  employ  when  they  want  you,  and  turn  you 
off  when  they  have  done  with  you. 

[Here  the  learned  gentleman  read  a part  of  lord  Plunket’s 
speech,  of  the  3rd  of  July.] 

“Shall  you,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  be  coerced  to-day  that 
that  was  a crime  which  the  Lord  Chancellor  declared  was  not 
a crime  ? Let  any  person,  with  two  ideas,  answer  this  ques- 
tion. Did  government  know  those  meetings  were  illegal  or 
not  ? Our  case  is,  we  were  ignorant.  Did  Mr.  Blackburne 
know  they  were  illegal  ? If  not,  and  that  I had  the  tithe- 
brand,  I would  brand  ignorance  on  his  forehead  ; and  instead 
of  six  inches  long,  it  should  be  nine.  But  they  knew  it — 
they  allowed  it  to  go  on — they  entrapped  the  poisonous  ver- 
min, and  now  call  upon  you  to  put  them  even  to  death  ! 
Gentlemen,  a spy  can  never  be  but  despised,  and  particularly 
a spy  before  a crime.  He  who  employs  a spy,  instigates  to 
crime,  and  then  calls  for  punishment.  Do  the  jury  smile  ? 
No ; they  agree  with  me.  The  meeting  was  peaceable.  Did 
they  use  a stick,  stone,  fist  ? Yes,  one — there  was  a threat 
held  out  to  one  of  the  traversers — carry  that  into  the  jury- 
box  with  you.  Good  God  ! Do  I stand  in  Kerry  ? Are 


XIV 


A ppendix. 


twelve  men  to  be  found  so  degraded  as  to  find  a verdict 
against  persons  peaceably  meeting  to  discuss  what  they  con- 
sider a grievance  ? There  is  no  indictment  for  words — we 
are  not  indicted  for  a libel ; for  sedition.  Hearken,  gentle- 
men, to  a trial  which  took  place  in  the  time  of  Dean  Swift. 

- -Oh,  the  value  of  trial  by  Jury  ! — the  check  which  a jury  is 
to  a judge  who  wilfully  mistakes  the  law  ! We  have  in  the 
‘ Life  of  Swift’  an  instance  of  the  valuable  check  a jury  is  to 
a corrupt  government.  In  1720,  this  great  man  published  a 
tract  relative  to  Ireland,  entitled,  ‘ A Proposal  for  the  uni- 
versal use  of  Irish  manufactures.’  The  use  of  Irish  manu- 
factures ! there  could  be  no  offence  in  that.  Of  this  pamph- 
let, and  its  consequences,  he  gives  the  following  account,  in 
a letter  to  Pope  : — ‘ I have  written,’  he  says,  ‘ in  this  king- 
dom, a discourse,  to  persuade  the  wretched  people  to  wear 
their  own  manufactures,  instead  of  those  from  England.’ 
This  treatise  soon  spread  very  fast,  being  agreeable  to  the 
sentiments  of  the  whole  nation,  except  of  those  gentlemen 
who  had  employments,  or  were  expectants  ; upon  which  a 
person  in  great  office  here  immediately  took  the  alarm.  He 
sent  in  haste  for  the  Chief  Justice,  and  informed  him — (of 
what,  gentlemen ? ‘of  a seditious,  factious,  and  virulent 
pamphlet,  lately  published,  with  a design  of  setting  the  two 
kingdoms  at  variance.’  A seditious,  factious,  and  virulent 
pamphlet,  for  recommending  the  use  of  Irish  manufacture  ! 
In  twenty  or  thirty  years  hence,  we’ll  hold  the  present  pro- 
ceedings in  the  very  same  light  that  we  now  hold  this 
‘ seditious,  factious,  and  virulent  pamphlet.’  Oh,  the  ines- 
timable value  of  trial  by  jury!  Well,  let  us  proceed— 
‘ Directing  at  the  same  time  that  the  printer  should  be 
prosecuted  with  the  utmost  rigour  #of  the  law ! ’ The 
utmost  rigour  of  the  law ! ‘ Prosecute,’  says  this  per- 

son in  power,  the  Arimanes  of  this  Manichean  govern- 
ment— prosecute  Jerry  O'Connor,  Gerrard  O’Connor, 


A ppendix. 


xv 


William  M‘Carthy,  and  the  priest  torn  from  the  sacred  duties 
of  his  altar,  and  prosecute  all  with  the  utmost  rigour  of  the 
law.  ‘The  Chief  Justice  has  so  quick  an  understanding, 
that  he  resolved  to  outdo  his  orders.’  This  person  in 
power  resolves  to  outdo  his  orders.  ‘The  grand  juries  of 
the  county  and  city  were  effectually  practised  with’ — (the 
jury  was  effectually  practised  with!) — ‘to  present  the  said 
pamphlet  with  all  aggravating  epithets,  for  which  they  had 
thanks  sent  them  ’ — (you,  no  doubt  gentlemen,  will  have  a 
vote  of  thanks  sent  you  from  Dublin,  signed  C.  Boyton, 
secretary)  ‘ and  their  presentments  published  for  several 
weeks  in  all  the  newspapers.  The  printer  was  seized  and 
forced  to  give  great  bail.  After  his  trial  the  jury  brought  him 
in  not  guilty,  although  they  had  been  culled  with  the  utmost  in- 
dustry.’ — Though  culled  with  the  utmost  industry,  these 
honest,  upright  jurors,  though  cautiously  culled,  men  of 
principle,  brought  the  poor  printer  in  not  guilty.  ‘ The  Chief 

Justice  sent  them  back  nine  times,  and  kept  them  eleven 
hours,  until,  being  perfectly  tired  out,  they  were  forced  to 
leave  the  matter  to  the  mercy  of  the  judge,  by  what  they  call 
a special  verdict.’  Oh,  if  I had  been  the  barrister  who  de- 
fended the  printer,  they  should  have  incarcerated  me  ere  I 
would  allow  that  judge  to  send  back  that  jury  once  after  their 
verdict.  Kept  that  jury  in  eleven  hours  after  their  verdict ! 
Atrocious  judge  ! Oh,  that  Heaven  would  put  in  every 
honest  hand  a whip  to  lash  the  rascal  naked  through  the 
world.  Astonishing,  that  the  very  stones  of  the  street  did 
not  rise  to  proclaim  his  disgrace,  and  tear  the  ermined  robe 
from  off  the  miscreant’s  back  ! ‘ During  the  trial  the  Chief 

Justice,  among  other  peculiarities,  laid  his  hand  upon  his 
heart,  and  protested  solemnly,  that  the  author’s  design  was  to 
bring  in  the  Pretender.’  Aye,  gentlemen,  ‘ Popery,  slavery, 
brass  money,  and  wooden  shoes.’  To  bring  in  the  Pre- 
tender ! — (laughter).  How  analogous  to  our  present  pro- 


XV' 


Appencttx. 


ceedings.  That  pamphlet  was  just  as  much  a design  to  bring 
in  the  Pretender,  as  our  crime  here  was  conspiracy.  There 
is  no  indictment  for  words — for  libellous  words — for  seditious 
words — for  exciting  persons  not  to  purchase  at  tithe  sales — 
no  count  for  threatening  those  who  should  buy — (if  I be  not 
stating  facts  the  counsel  at  the  other  side  should  stop  me) — 
take  the  evidence  in  the  strongest  sense,  there  is  no  count  in 
the  indictment  to  found  a verdict  on.  Is  the  jury  of  this 
high,  independent  county  to  be  made  the  base  instrument  of 
the  government,  to  send  in  a perjured  verdict  ? I do  not 
blame  the  skill  of  the  prosecutors  ; the  law  has  not  conjec- 
tured such  a crime.  I fearlessly  assert  there  is  no  count  in 
the  indictment,  on  which  to  ground  a verdict.  Let  us  look 
at  the  law  of  conspiracy  as  defined  in  Chitty’s  Criminal  Law  : 
we  find  it  here  defined,  lvagum  et  incerium  ; — here  we  find 
the  law  of  conspiracy  * vagum  et  incertum ,’  loose  and  uncer- 
tain. Now  where  there  is  a doubt  on  the  minds  of  a jury, 
the  prisoner  is  entitled  to  the  benefit  of  that  doubt.  In  Rome 
the  law  of  one  of  the  tyrants  was  so  equitable , that,  when  he 
chose  to  create  victims,  he  caused  his  proclamations  to  be 
printed  so  small  and  posted  so  high,  that  it  required  the  very 
best  eye  to  read  them — as  telescopes  or  spectacles  were  not 
invented  in  those  days.  The  hissing  in  a theatre  is  here 
adduced  as  authority  for  expounding  the  law  of  conspiracy. 
This  is  contemptible  and  foolish,  the  opinion  of  an  old  woman, 
than  whom  there  was  not  a greater  on  the  bench,  than  he 
who  pronounced  it,  Sir  James  Mansfield — a weak  judge,  a 
well-meaning  man,  but  no  authority.  But  does  this  opinion 
constitute  law?  Who  is  to  make  law?  Judges  say,  they 
cannot  make  law  : Coke’s  opinion  is  that  judges  have  made 

law  ; and  we  have  evidences  of  it,  when  we  hear  every  idle 
briefless  barrister,  who  has  nothing  else  to  do  but  reporting 
what  judge  such-a-one  says,  on  such  a subject,  not  analogous 
to  the  one  then  under  consideration.  Hearken  to  what 


Appendix. 


xvl  i 


Hawkins  says  : — * It  seemeth  certain,  id  videtur now, 
seeming  precludes  certainty.  (The  learned  gentleman  here 
quoted  Hawkins,  Blackstone,  Chitty,  and  other  lawyers’ 
opinions  of  the  law  of  conspiracy  ; in  particular  he  dwelt  on 
Chitty).  1 Few  things  so  doubtful  in  law  as  the  point  at 
which  combination  becomes  illegal/  This  authority  cannot 
be  doubted  when  it  is  quoted  by  the  other  side  (here  Mr. 
O’Connell  referred  to  13th  East.  230,  King  and  Turner). 
Here  you  see,  false  et  malitiose  is  a necessary  ingredient  in 
the  crime  of  conspiracy.  King  and  Ecles,  in  the  case  of  cer- 
tain poachers  combining  to  meet  at  night,  to  poach,  not  con- 
sidered conspiracy.  If  the  traversers  have  combined,  so  have 
the  Quakers ; that  exemplary  and  respectable  class  of  Chris- 
tians, have  been  conspiring  for  the  last  200  years  . Whoever 
among  that  respectable  class  is  guilty  of  paying  tithes,  that 
person  is  read  out  of  meeting — nay,  they  go  farther,  and  say, 
whoever  takes  the  surplus  of  what  is  sold  for  tithes,  is  read 
cut  of  meeting.  Who  ever  heard  of  their  being  indicted  for 
conspiracy  ? There  is  no  conspiracy  to  resist  tithes  in  Ire- 
land— I fearlessly  assert  it.  My  lord  Plunket  has  said  the 
same  : he  having  laid  his  view  of  the  law,  dare  we  dispute 
it  ? The  public  at  large  are  not  injured  ; the  injury  is  only 
to  individuals.  This  comes  precisely  under  the  case  of  King 
and  Ecles.  Let  us  come  to  the  evidence.  There  are  six 
witnesses,  Giles  Sullivan,  Adam  Firrell,  J.  Godfrey,  J.  Coffe, 
E.  Sullivan  and  D.  O’Connor.  Not  one  of  all  these  could 
prove  a breach  of  the  peace.  Note  that  I pray  you.  I call 
upon  you  to  note,  not  one  could  prove  a blow,  except  the 
three  made  to  one  of  the  traversers — no  .breach  of  the  peace. 
This  was  at  the  meeting  of  the  10th — the  next  meeting  was 
on  the  15th.  On  this  day  the  Rev.  Mr.  O’Sullivan  first  ap- 
pears, and  no  one  can  say  that  what  took  place  that  day,  is 
evidence  as  against  him.  I’ll  spare  my  breath  with  respect 
to  him.  I shall  throw  overboard  the  opinion  of  Sir  J. 


XV111 


A ppendix . 


Mansfield,  a government-influenced  judge.  We  have  in- 
stances, gentlemen,  of  judges  having  been  influenced.” 

Judge  Moore. — Mr.  O’Connell,  this  is  too  much.  I 
really  cannot  suffer  an  imputation  which  I feel  I do  not  de- 
serve. 

Mr.  O’Connell. — My  lord,  I was  but  commenting  upon 
a quotation  concerning  the  opinion  of  Sir  James  Mansfield, 
which  fell  from  the  learned  counsel  at  the  other  side. 

Judge  Moore. — I am  sorry  I mistook  you,  Mr.  O’Connell, 
I thought  you  meant 

Mr.  O’Connell. — I meant  what  I said  ; but  my  lord,  I 
would  rather  go  to  the  dock,  or  pass  my  life  in  a gaol,  than 
suffer  the  interests  of  my  clients,  or  my  privilege  as  an  Irish 
barrister,  to  be  frittered  away  by  any  judge.  I am  here  to 
advocate  public  liberty,  as  well  as  private  right — the  basis  of 
a nation’s  prosperity.  I stand  here  between  the  peaceable 
inhabitants  of  my  county  and  their  oppressors.  I assail  the 
Attorney-General  for  having  brought  this  paltry  prosecution 
without  evidence,  in  the  very  teeth  of  reason  and  justice. 

Mr.  Bennett. — The  Attorney-General  is  not  here,  Mr. 
O’Connell. 

Mr.  O’Connell. — It  is  not  my  fault  that  he  is  not  here. 
He  is  here  by  his  prosecution — I assail  that  prosecution.  This 
jury  is  not  to  try  a petty  civil  bill — a petty  question,  the  up- 
shot of  which  is  a month’s  imprisonment.  No  ! they  are 
here  to  protect  their  country  from  the  grossest  wrong — to 
protect  their  liberties — their  right  of  meeting  to  establish 
their  country’s  welfare  by  constitutional  means.  One  of  the 
counts  is — inciting  not  to  pay  tithes  in  O’Dorney  ; another, 
inciting  not  to  pay  tithes  all  over  Ireland.  As  to  incitement 
to  conspiracy,  I look  upon  it  that  is  a new  law. 

Judge  Moore. — Mere  incitement  is  not  indictable. 

Mr.  O’Connell. — The  first  in  the  parish  of  O’Dorney  and 
another  all  over  Ireland.  Now,  there  is  not  a particle  of  the 


A ppendix . 


xix 


existence  of  tithes  in  O’Dorney ; whether  it  pays  now,  or 
not,  does  not  signify  : we  have  no  legal  evidence  of  the  pay- 
ment of  tithes  in  the  parish  of  O’Dorney;  on  the  contrary, 
we  know  it  to  have  been  a mitred  abbacy ; and  my  learned 
friend  will  admit  that  the  principle  of  ecclesia  non  decimat 
ecclesiam,  prevailed  in  those  days ; and  I warrant  that  the 
abbots  of  O’Dorney  looked  well  to  their  rights,  and  paid 
tithes  to  no  man,  neither  lay  nor  clerical.  If  I am  to  have 
law,  let  me  have  law.  We  are  indicted  for  conspiracy  to 
prevent  the  payment  of  tithes  all  over  Ireland.  Not  one 
particle  of  evidence  is  there  extending  the  conspiracy  farther 
than  the  two  baronies  ; but,  remember,  this  conspiracy  must 
be  a criminal  conspiracy — it  must  be  a conspiracy  to  act  in 
co-operation  for  an  illegal  purpose.  The  witnesses  have  not 
proved  the  entire  of  any  one  discourse  : is  this  evidence  of 
what  has  been  said  ? The  witnesses  picked  out  what  was 
bad , and  not  until  their  memory  was  jogged  by  me,  could 
they  remember  one  thing  that  was  good.  If  they  had  sworn 
that  nothing  else  but  that  was  said,  then  indeed  it  might  be 
considered  evidence  : but  was  there  nothing  said  to  explain 
or  qualify?  We  are  triumphant  in  the  qualification— every 
one  of  the  witnesses  admitted  the  qualification.  It  is  not 
from  parts  of  sentences  that  we  can  collect  a whole — the 
principle  I thus  arraign  is  no  less  repugnant  to  the  spirit  and 
letter  of  constitutional  law,  than  it  is  irreconcilable  to  com- 
mon sense,  to  general  morality.  If  it  were  not  so,  Atheism 
could  be  proved  from  the  Holy  Scriptures.  “ ‘ There  is  no 
God,’  is  written  in  your  Bible,”  exclaims  the  Atheist  trium- 
phantly. “ True,”  says  the  Christian,  “ but  it  is  set  down  as 
the  language  of  a fool : ‘ the  fool  saith  in  his  heart  there  is 
no  God.’”  Now  let  us  see  Gerrard  O’Connor’s  speech. — - 
(Here  the  learned  counsel  read  that  gentleman’s  speech  from 
the  Tralee  Mercury.)  “ It  is  not  by  holding  illegal  meet- 
ings in  the  awful  solitude  of  the  night  you  can  rid  yourself  of 


XX 


A ppendix. 


an  oppressive  law.  No  : but  by  assembling  in  the  open  day, 
before  the  face  of  Heaven  and  the  world — by  using  argu- 
ments instead  of  force — by  wielding  the  pen  instead  of  the 
dagger  or  the  sword — by  substituting  the  exercise  of  moral 
power  for  a display  of  physical  strength  ; in  a word,  peaceably 
and  constitutionally  assembling  as  you  have  on  this  day — by 
proclaiming  to  the  world  the  wrongs  and  injuries  which  you 
suffer,  and  by  petitioning  the  legislature  of  your  country  for 
redress  : it  is  by  these  means — cuid  these  alone — you  can  ever 
effect  any  benefit  for  your  native  land.”  This  was  the  lan- 
guage of  Gerrard  O’Connor : but  all  this  was  suppressed, 
withheld  by  those  worthy,  creditable,  and  accurate  witnesses, 
until  by  mere  chance  I have  been  enabled  to  draw  it  from 
them.  This,  remember,  was  cheered  by  the  meeting,  the 
attending  at  which  forms  the  subject  matter  of  this  prosecu- 
tion. 

Gentlemen  of  the  jury,  bear  this  in  mind,  I entreat  you, 
that  there  is  no  continued  chain,  but  partial  portions  of  iso- 
lated evidence  relied  on  to  convict  my  clients  ; a means  of 
procuring  the  oppression  of  the  subject  by  the  mockery  of 
justice,  the  semblance  of  legality — one  of  the  never-failing 
resources  of  bad  and  tyrannical  governments,  and  their 
creatures.  It  was  by  means  such  as  these,  that  in  former 
times  the  illustrious  Russell  was  made  the  martyr  of  public 
liberty.  A jury  was  packed  for  the  occasion  by  the  infamous 
Jeffries;  and  from  a discourse  on  theoretical  liberty  found 
among  his  papers,  such  particular  portions  were  selected  as, 
by  a forced  interpretation,  procured  at  once  the  object  of 
the  accusers  and  the  conviction  of  the  accused.  The  noble 
Russell  was  convicted  upon  such  evidence  as  that  : his  an- 
gelical lady  attended  his  trial,  and  supplied  him  with  notes 
of  the  evidence,  and  when  she  saw  her  husband  foully  mur- 
dered by  the  sentence  of  a corrupt  judge,  and  the  verdict  of 
a packed  and  ever  infamous  jury,  she  stilled  her  throbbing 


Appendix. 


xxi 


bosom,  and  the  angelic  heroine  repressed  her  breaking  heart, 
but  that  she  might  teach  her  infant  son  to  tread  in  the  foot- 
steps of  his  father,  that  she  might  devote  him  on  the  altar  of 
the  British  Constitution,  and  swear  him  there  never  to  dis- 
grace the  name  of  Russell ; and  one  of  the  first  acts  of  a 
British  reformed  Parliament — the  first  Parliament  that  ever 
met  after  the  glorious  Revolution  of  ’88,  restored  the  name  of 
Russell  in  lustre  and  purity,  to  the  admiration  of  all  England  ; 
and  that  same  act  condemned  and  denounced  the  infamous 
modes  resorted  to  to  convict  him — the  choosing  out  garbled 
and  isolated  passages  from  his  writings,  and  suppressing  all 
that  could  qualify  or  explain  them.  In  modern  times  we 
have  Smith,  the  missionary,  for  advocating  the  liberty  of  the 
gospel,  persecuted  the  same  way.  No  man  can  indict  me 
for  saying,  “ I never  will  pay  tithes such  a stretch  of  the 
law  was  never  contemplated.  Gentlemen,  had  I not  an  in. 
terest  in  thus  pressing  you,  I should  not  put  this  proposition 
half  the  number  of  times  to  you.  Bear  well  in  mind,  gentle- 
men, you  are  bound  to  give  the  traversers  the  benefit  of 
every  doubt ; every  shadow  of  rational  doubt  must  have 
vanished  before  you  can  convict.  This  county  was  never 
yet  disgraced  by  any  verdict  against  a traverser  on  which  a 
doubt  hung,  and  I assert  that  my  clients  are  as  entitled  to 
an  acquittal  as  any  traversers  that  ever  stood  in  this 
As  to  the  words  imputed  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  O’Sullivan,  of 
‘‘  parsons  giving  up  their  tithes  and  “ here  are  the  cows, 
but  where  the  purchasers  ?”  there  is  a decided  difference  in 
the  evidence  of  the  two  witnesses,  O’Sullivan  and  Connor, 
which  impeaches  the  accuracy  of  both  : what  then  becomes 
of  their  veracity  ? one  must  be  wrong,  that  creates  a doubt 
as  to  which,  and  a doubt  acquits.  I must  grind  this  into 
your  minds — you  cannot  reconcile  the  evidence  of  Giles 
Sullivan,  and  that  of  Daniel  Connor.  There  is  a plump 
contradiction,  a direct  and  emphatic  contradiction.  What 


XXII 


A ppendix. 


do  you  think  of  this  man  who  could  not  remember  “ the 
thousandth  part  of  what  was  said  f no  certain  swearing  a i 
to  a chairman  ; there  was  no  chairman.  You  may,  gentle* 
men,  remember  to-morrow  what  you  heard  to-day — (a  laugh). 
You  will  find  it  hard  to  remember  the  entire  of  it  though 
you  heard  me  say  I would  not  pay  tithes.  You  could 
swear  to  a great  deal  of  what  was  said ; you  would  still 
have  a greater  difficulty  in  a week,  still  more  and  more 
in  a month.  But,  what  will  you  say,  when  I tell  you  the 
informations  were  not  sworn  against  the  traversers  for  two 
months  after  the  alleged  offence.  When  I asked  one  of  the 
worthy  witnesses  why  he  did  not  tell  the  recommendation 
of  D.  Connor,  and  the  others  to  the  people  to  keep  the 
peace.  ‘ He  said  he  did  not  at  the  time  recollect  that,’  did 
not  remember  one  particle  of  what  by  chance  I got  out  of 
him  by  the  assistance  of  a newspaper.  Some  of  the  wit- 
nesses could  remember  a number  of  words,  a ludicrous  tale 
of  marrow-bones,  shins,  parsons’  children,  weeds  of  a garden, 
devils  out  of  hell  or  something.’  This  puts  me  in  mind  of 
a ridiculous  affidavit  filed  in  one  of  the  courts  above : — it 
was  in  the  case  of  a landlord  moving  the  court  for  leave  to 
bring  an  ejectment.  The  affidavit  set  forth — that  he,  this 
deponent,  called  on  the  said  so  and  so,  for  the  rent  and 
arrears  of  rent  then  due  to  this  deponent,  as  such  landlord, 
and  the  answer  which  this  deponent  then  got  from  the  said 
so  and  so,  was,  bothenwi  boo , or  words  to  that  effect.  This 
is  a State  trial,  a trial  which  is  to  put  down  Whiteboyism  ; 
we  who  meet  together  to  discuss  our  grievances ; constitu- 
tionally to  meet  and  address  parliament  by  petition,  com- 
pared to  Whiteboys.  I assert  that  this  very  political  agitation 
is  the  most  powerful  instrument  to  put  an  end  to  White- 
boyism. There  was  no  political  agitation  in  1819,  and  look 
at  the  atrocities  committed.  I aided  constitutional  agita- 
tion, and  Whiteboyism-ceased ; when  constitutional  agitation 


Appendix. 


xx  m 


commenced,  Whiteboyism  vanished.  In  a word,  gentlemen, 
when  I consider  those  scraps  and  patches  of  evidence,  these 
inaccuracies  snatched  up,  and  relied  on  as  evidence,  no  in- 
dictment inciting  not  to  buy,  no  evidence  of  tithes  in 
O’Dorney.  I rest  in  full  reliance  on  your  verdict.  The 
entire  county  looks  to  you  y the  spirit  of  Kerry  men  exists 
in  you  ; we  have  fled  to  the  integrity  of  a Kerry  jury  from 
those  wrongs  which  party  zeal  has  accumulated  on  us. 
There  may  be  some  among  you  possessed  of  your  preju- 
dices ; but  yon  are  Christians.  I call  on  you  then  for  that 
verdict  which  will  give  the  Court  satisfaction  and  reflect 
honour  and  glory  on  yourselves.” 

The  priest,  Mr.  O’Sullivan,  was  acquitted.  There  was,  in 
fact,  no  case  a:  ain  ;t  him,  as  he  had  advised  peaceable  agita- 
tion. Jeremiah  O’Connor  and  W.  S.  M‘Carthy  were  fined 
£10  each,  and  imprisoned  for  a month.  Gerrard  O’Connor 
was  fined  ^io,  and  a fortnight’s  imprisonment. 

To-day,  the  son  of  this  gentleman,  the  Rev.  M.  O’Connor, 
P.P.,  is  one  of  the  principal  promoters  of  the  Land  League 
in  Kerry.  So  does  history  repeat  itself.  He  remembers 
but  too  well  the  events  of  his  father’s  most  unjust  imprison- 
ment ; but  he  also  has  lived  to  see  the  tithes  abolished,  in 
consequence  of  the  determined  resistance  of  the  Irish 
people. 


APPENDIX. 


No.  II, 


No.  i. — Outrages. 


O the  last  moment  of  going  to  press  we  note 


1 the  persistent  efforts  of  the  English  papers 
to  publish  “ outrages  ” which  have  never  hap- 
pened and  which  have  often  been  contradicted 
some  days  before  in  Irish  papers ; e.g.,  the 
Graphic  has  a terrible  outrage  in  its  issue  for 
December  4 — a man  who  had  both  his  ears  cut 
off  in  Kerry.  This  story  which  never  existed, 
except  in  the  imagination  of  the  inventor,  was 
contradicted  several  days  previously  in  Irish 
papers. 

English  readers,  when  they  see  accounts  of 
Irish  outrages  in  the  English  papers,  take  it  for 
granted  that  they  are  true  ; if  they  would  take  it 
for  granted  that  they  are  not  true  for  the  future 
they  would  be  nearer  the  truth.  They  should 
also  be  very  careful  not  to  believe  sensational 
letters  about  the  state  of  Ireland,  written  to 


A ppendix . 


xxv 


English  papers  by  Irish  landlords.  The  object 
of  these  gentlemen  is  simply  to  prevent  English 
people  from  legislating  fairly  for  Ireland,  and  to 
enable  them  to  continue  oppressing  their  tenants. 
The  Irish  people  only  ask  for  just  laws  from 
England ; why  are  they  to  be  denounced  for 
this  ? But  as  they  would  not  be  heard  other- 
wise they  have  been  obliged  to  form  a great 
national  strike  to  obtain  justice.  In  a strike 
there  must  be  demands  made  by  the  whole  body, 
such  as  fixing  Griffith’s  valuation  as  a basis  for 
rents  until  the  strike  is  settled. 

From  careful  investigation  I find  that  not  one 
in  ten  of  the  outrages,  either  on  men  or  animals, 
is  true.  As  a witty  friend  of  mine  said,  they 
should  be  taken  cum  grano  salis-bury . 

2. — Oppressive  Rules  of  Estates  and  Magis- 
terial Decisions. 

The  following  speaks  for  itself.  It  cannot  be 
too  widely  known  that  “ excessive  rent  ” is  not 
the  only  burden  which  weighs  down  the  Irish 
tenant.  At  a meeting  of  the  Land  League,  in 
Dublin,  Mr.  Egan  made  the  following  report : — 

“ The  property  he  referred  to  was  situate  at  Ballinamore, 
near  Balia,  in  the  county  Mayo,  and  belonged  to  Mr. 
Anthony  Ormsby.  He  would  only  give  the  names  of  six 


xxvi  A ppendix . 


townlands,  and  he  did  not  know  whether  they  represented 
the  entire  property  : — 


No.  of  No.  of 

Townland. 

Hold- 

Per- 

Government 

Present 

ings. 

sons. 

Valuation. 

Rents. 

Laragan  . • 

..  12 

77 

j£6  5 19 

0 

;£lo8  O 

0 

Baliinamore  . . 

..  l6 

96 

108  9 

0 

169  15 

0 

Balliiitaffy  .. 

9 

62 

127  6 

0 

171  O 

0 

Durphy  •• 

• • 13 

89 

108  6 

0 

170  15 

0 

Comderra  . • 

8 

72 

47  19 

0 

77  5 

0 

Carrindyne  • • 

••  15 

108 

137  0 

0 

227  10 

0 

73 

504 

£595  19 

0 

£924  S 

0 

Almost  the  entire  of  these  lands  consist  of  mountain  slopes, 
and  were  all  reclaimed  by  the  tenants,  without  any  aid  from 
the  landlord.  In  addition  to  the  above  exorbitant  rents,  the 
tenants  are  obliged  to  pay  the  entire  taxes — not  even  getting 
the  usual  allowance  of  half  poor-rates.  They  were  also 
obliged  to  discharge  ‘ duty  work,’  or  free  labour,  themselves 
and  all  the  members  of  their  families,  with  their  horses  and 
donkeys.  Tenants  must  get  landlord’s  consent  to  their 
marriage,  or  the  marriage  of  their  children,  and  if  they  omit 
to  do  so  are  mercilessly  fined.  Thirty-five  tenants  were 
evicted  off  Laragan  townland,  and  seventeen  tenants  off  the 
towniand  of  Durphy,  after  they  had  reclaimed  the  land.  One 
tenant  on  the  latter  townland,  Pat  Walshe,  had  his  holding 
twenty-two  years  ago  at  ^3.  The  rent  is  now  A11  10s.  ; 
the  valuation  is  £4  10s. 

“ One  of  these  was  fined  10s.  for  one  stone  on  the  top  of 
the  gable  not  being  whitewashed  to  the  landlords  liking ; 
2s.  6d.  for  stopping  at  home  from  duty  work  to  bury  his 
child  ; 2s.  6d.  for  his  pig  rooting  on  his  own  farm. 

“ John  Ruane  was  compelled  to  change  from  where  he 
lived,  and  build  a new  house  on  some  waste  land  in  order  to 
have  it  reclaimed.  When  he  had  the  house  built  the  land- 
lord compelled  him  to  throw  it  down  and  to  build  it  ten 
yards  further  in.  When  he  had  reclaimed  the  land  he  again 


A ppendix. 


xxvii 


compelled  him  to  leave  the  place  and  go  live  on  the 
mountain.  The  poor  man  lost  his  life  and  died. 

“Pat  Walsh,  a mason,  worked  at  a building  thirty-five 
days,  but  would  not  get  paid  for  fifteen  days.  When  he 
grumbled  at  this  treatment  he  was  made  throw  down  the 
wall  and  to  build  it  without  payment,  and  as  soon  as  he  had 
it  finished  he  turned  him  out  without  compensation. 

“ Thomas  Cavanagh  was  compelled  to  throw  down  his 
house  and  build  a new  one.  When  he  had  lived  there  a few 
years  he  was  forced  to  change  to  a bog,  where  he  had  to 
build  again.  When  he  had  reclaimed  the  bog  he  changed 
him  again  for  the  third  time,  and  wanted  to  change  him  the 
fourth  time.  When  the  man  refused  he  turned  him  out 
without  compensation.  He  had  to  go  to  the  workhouse, 
where  he  and  his  wife  died.  Each  time  he  was  changed  it 
cost  him  from  jQ 40  to  £70. 

These  particulars  had  been  supplied  to  him  from  what  he 
believed  to  be  the  most  reliable  source  in  the  district 
Almost  the  entire  of  these  lands  consisted  of  mountain  slob 
reclaimed  without  any  aid  from  the  landlord.  On  the  pro- 
perty a system  of  fines  existed,  of  which  he  would  give  a few 
specimens : — 

“John  Gormley  was  changed  from  his  holding  in  the 
middle  of  winter,  and  had  to  build  a new  house,  which  cost 
him  £10,  on  a swamp  near  a spring.  The  house  was  so 
damp  that  the  cattle  got  sick,  and  some  of  them  died.  The 
family  had  to  remain  up  at  night  all  winter  to  keep  fires  lit. 

“ Thomas  Conlon,  who  lived  three  miles  away,  was 
ordered  in  to  work  duty  work  three  days  in  the  week.  He 
worked  two  days  and  remained  away  the  third.  He  was  fined 
5s.  for  not  attending. 

“ Pat  Delany  was  fined  10s.  for  his  cattle  straying  on  a 
bog  road  nearly  a mile  from  the  main  road.  He  was  fined 
5s.  for  the  top  of  his  chimney  not  being  whitewashed 


xxviii  A ppendix. 

according  to  the  landlord’s  liking,  and  5s.  for  stopping  away 
from  duty  work. 

“ John  Carney  was  fined  5s.  for  repairing  his  own  mearing 
without  the  landlord’s  consent ; 10s.  for  taking  a stone  from 
an  adjoining  farm,  which  was  unoccupied;  and  jQ 1 for 
cutting  a few  whitethorn  bushes. 

“Michael  Conlon  was  fined  12s.  for  being  seven  days 
late  in  whitewashing  his  house;  10s.  for  some  quicks  which 
were  pulled  near  the  main  road  some  distance  from  his 
house.  Nine  years  ago  he  was  compelled  to  go  mowing  to 
the  landlord,  and  was  fined  7s.  6d.  when  he  did  not  make  a 
drain  in  his  holding  at  the  same  time.  He  was  fined  12s.  6d. 
for  repairing  his  own  window  (laughter).  He  was  forced  to 
spend  twenty  days  mowing  hay  at  iod.  per  day,  while  he 
might  have  earned  8s.  per  day  at  that  time.  He  was  also 
fined  jQ 2 per  annum  for  life  for  not  going  to  work  while  his 
hand  was  sore.  He  was  also  fined  A1  f°r  burning  scutch 
grass  on  his  holding. 

“ Pat  Hyland,  of  Ballantuffy,  was  obliged  to  build  a new 
house  which  was  often  visited  by  the  landlord  when  building. 
After  it  was  built  he  did  not  like  the  appearance  of  it  from 
the  road.  He  made  him  throw  it  down  and  rebuild  it.  He 
(the  landlord)  promised  him  ^7,  compensation  for  windows 
and  doors,  but  refused  to  pay  it.  When  the  house  was 
finished  he  made  him  throw  a portion  of  it  down  for  the 
second  time,  and  raised  it  eighteen  inches.  He  also  com- 
pelled him  to  cut  a hill  in  front  of  his  house. 

“A  little  girl  named  Shearon  was  fined  5s.  for  looking 
through  a fence  on  the  road  side,  while  a travelling  show 
was  passing.  Mr.  Ormsby  chanced  to  see  her  (laughter). 

“ The  following  tenants  were  evicted  by  Mr.  Ormsby,  in 
order  to  enlarge  his  demesne  : — 

Thomas  Walsh,  Martin  Quinn,  Widow  Moran.  W'idow 
Shearon,  Thomas  Kilray,  Pat  Shearon,  Pat  Kelly,  Michael 


Appendix. 


XXIX 

% 


Early,  Thomas  Begley,  Pat  Kelly,  Edward  McDonnell,  Peter 
McDonnell,  John  Ruane,  Thomas  Quinn,  John  Hearn, 
Patrick  Reaney,  Patrick  Ruane,  Daniel  Duddy,  Patrick 
Duddy,  Roger  Halligan,  Patrick  Halligan,  Edward  Ruane, 
Martin  Ruane,  Edward  Mulligan,  and  John  Connelly. 

“ Phelim  Brennan  was  fined  12s.  6d.  for  his  cattle  being 
found  on  the  road. 

“ Anne  Nolan,  a servant,  was  fined  5s.  forgoing  to  see  her 
mother  in  her  illness.  She  was  also  fined  7s.  6d.,  because 
she  could  not  make  the  cows  produce  as  much  milk  as  they 
did  in  summer.  Ormsby  measured  the  milk  night  and 
morning  for  three  years.  Most  of  the  tenants  on  the  pro- 
perty have  been  changed  from  one  place  to  another,  as  it 
pleased  the  landlord. 

“John  Jennings  of  Laragan,  was  fined  ^3  for  getting 
married  without  the  landlord’s  sanction,  which  was  proved 
in  open  court  at  last  Quarter  Sessions,  at  Swinford. 

“Mr.  Brennan — I hope  the  Government  will  take  that 
list  of  outrages  into  consideration  when  they  come  to  con- 
sider the  suspension  of  the  ‘ Habeas  Corpus .’ 

“ Mr.  Egan — I have  only  to  say  that  these  particulars 
came  to  me,  as  I consider,  well  and  thoroughly  vouched. 
If  Mr.  Ormsby  can  disprove  any  of  the  statements  made  in 
that  document,  we  here,  at  this  League,  will  give  him  every 
opportunity  of  vindicating  himself.” 

I have  omitted  many  particulars  to  save  space. 
There  has  been  no  contradiction  published. 

The  Rev.  John  Magee,  P.  P.,  Stradbally, 
writes  of  the  “ Office  Rules”  on  the  Marquis  of 
Lansdowne’s  Queen’s  County  Estates  : — 

“ 1st. — That  on  the  Marquis  of  Lansdowne’s  property  in 


XXX  Appendix. 

the  Queen’s  County,  in  addition  to  all  its  other  exactions, 
an  office  rule  (one  of  those  silent  office  rules)  required  that 
no  bachelor  could  dare  to  take  the  girl  of  his  choice  in 
marriage  till  first  he  presented  himself  at  the  office  and 
obtained  from  the  famous  agent,  or  quasi  Vicar- General,  Mr. 
Trench,  a canonical  licence  to  marry. 

“ 2nd. — That  any  tenant  bachelor  disregarding  this  edict 
or  rule  of  office  was  liable  to  be  fined  one  year’s  rent” 

A case  was  tried  at  Tralee,  in  March,  1880, 
from  the  report  of  which  I extract  the  follow- 
ing : — 

“ Denis  O’Brien  was  next  examined — He  deposed  he  got 
possession  of  the  farm  from  Mr.  Chute ; there  were  some 
arrears  of  rent,  but  he  could  not  say  how  much  it  was ; there 
was  no  arrangement  between  my  father  and  myself  about 
the  land,  but  there  was  an  arrangement  between  Mr.  Chute 
and  myself. 

“ Mr.  Wall — What  was  the  arrangement  ? 

“ Witness — That  I was  not  to  get  married  without  Mr. 
Chute’s  consent. 

“ His  Lordship — And  are  you  to  bring  the  girl  to  Mr. 
Chute  to  see  her?  (laughter).” 

Mr.  Marmion,  J.P.,  in  giving  evidence  before 
the  Land  Commission,  has  said  that,  eleven 
years  ago,  he  gave  300  leases  on  the  Castle 
Townsend  property,  the  term  of  each  farming 
lease  being  sixty-one  years,  and  of  each  building 
lease  300  years.  They  were  given,  on  an 
average,  at  fifteen  per  cent,  above  the  Poor  Law 


A ppendix. 


xxxi 


Valuation.  For  the  next  five  years,  Mr.  Marmion 
avers,  that  there  were  more  improvements  made 
on  that  property  than  for  the  half  century  pre- 
vious, and  he  never  had  any  difficulty  in  getting 
the  rental.  In  this  case  both  landlord  and 
tenant  were  therefore  materially  served  by  secu- 
rity ; and  he  (Mr.  Marmion)  received  the  warm- 
est acknowledgments  from  one  and  the  other. 

He  next  gives  an  example  of  a very  different 
kind  : — “ I hand  you,”  he  says  to  the  Commis- 
sioners, “ a lease,  called  Richard  G.  Campion’s 
Compound  Form  . . . The  rent  is  £23,  the 

valuation  £9  10s.  I know  another,  held  under 
the  same  agent’s  management,”  he  adds,  “where 
the  rent  was  ^16  16s.  Mr.  Campion  sent  the 
tenant  a lease  to  execute,  raising  the  rent  to 
£30-  The  tenant  refused  and  protested,  and 
what  was  Mr.  Campion’s  reply?  That  if  the 
lease  was  not  executed  before  ten  o’clock  next 
day  the  rent  would  be  raised  to  ^*40.” 

Mr.  Marmion  deposed  that  he  knows  estates 
where  the  rent  is  double  the  valuation.  He 
declares  that  he  has  raised,  in  local  banks, 

100,000  for  tenants,  and  has  had  only  three 
defaulters,  one  of  whom  is  a magistrate  of  the 
county. 

At  a meeting  where  the  Rev.  P.  Waldron, 
P.P.,  Killerin  presided,  he  detailed  the  dealings 


XXXI 1 


A ppendix. 


of  Mr.  Henry  with  his  tenants,  whom  he  fines  a 
guinea  each  if  they  go  to  England  to  work. 
The  tenants  pay  double  Griffith’s  Valuation,  and 
land  for  which  they  give  him  18s.  an  acre  is  so 
bad  that  a curlew  would  not  alight  on  it. 

During  the  distress  in  Ireland,  Colonel  King- 
Harman,  writing  to  the  Times  said  : — 

“ There  is,  no  doubt,  a certain  amount  of  imposition  and 
of  seeking  after  unearned  food,  instead  of  honest  work, 
among  a few  of  the  idle  and  worthless,  who  must  always  be 
found  in  any  community,  and  who  will  be  found  in  Ireland, 
as  elsewhere.  As  a rule,  however,  I say  boldly  that  our 
people  in  the  West  are  making  a brave  fight,  and  are  gene- 
rally found  asking  for  work,  and  not  clamouring  for  charity. 
I could  tell  of  instances  of  families  who  are  getting  relief 
meal,  at  the  rate  of  half-a-pound  per  head  per  diem,  helping 
their  neighbours.  Is  this  demoralization  ? ” 


III. — Orangemen  and  the  Land  Question. 

One  of  the  most  important  of  the  Irish  land 
meetings  was  held  in  Ulster.  It  is  generally 
supposed  in  England  that  there  is  no  land 
agitation  in  this  part  of  Ireland.  On  this 

occasion  there  were  no  less  than  five  Members 
of  Parliament  present,  a number  of  gentlemen, 
members  of  Orange  lodges,  and  a number  of 
the  Catholic  clergy.  The  significance  of  such  a 
meeting  cannot  be  over-estimated.  It  was  held 
in  the  Town  of  Monaghan  on  the  22nd  Novem- 


A ppendix. 


xxxm 


ber,  1880.  The  M.P.’s  present  were  Messrs. 
Given  and  Findlater,  Mr.  Litton,  M.P.  for 
Tyrone,  Mr.  Richardson,  M.P.  for  Armagh, 
Mr.  Dillon,  M.P.  for  Dungannon.  The  chair 
was  taken  by  Mr.  William  Anketell,  J.P.,  and 
the  meeting  lasted  four  hours.  Mr.  Henry 
Overend,  an  Orangeman,  spoke  first.  Canon 
Smullen,  P.P.  of  Clarus,  seconded  the  resolu- 
tion. 

“ Mr.  Henry  Overend,  of  Farney,  Carrickmacross,  moved — 

“‘That  the  Ulster  Tenant-right  Custom  does  not  afford 
sufficient  protection  to  tenants  against  capricious  evictions 
and  unjust  rents.’ 

“A  regiment  going  into  the  field  thought  it  a great 
honour  to  be  put  into  the  front  of  the  battle.  He  had  been 
put  into  the  front  that  day  to  move  the  first  resolution. 
What  had  the  Ulster  Custom  done  for  the  people  of  Ulster  ? 

“ Voices — ‘ Nothing.’ 

“ Mr.  Overend — ‘ Office  rules’  came  in  and  made  it  of  no 
effect.  He  travelled  there  that  day  from  Farney,  and  along 
with  him  was  another  Orangeman  (cheers).  He  had  a 
Roman  Catholic  J.P.  along  with  him,  and  also  a sound 
Farney  priest.  They  could  take  arm  in  arm  on  the  Car- 
rickmacross railway  platform,  and  were  not  ashamed  to  say 
what  they  were.  He  went  to  church  on  Sunday  and  the 
others  went  to  Mass  on  Sunday,  and  they  were  glad  to  shake 
hands  when  they  met  (cheers).  Let  them  do  all  that  there 
— stand  up  for  the  cause  boldly  (cheers).  Don’t  be 
ashamed  or  afraid  of  their  landlords.  He  believed  there 
were  lots  of  Orangemen  there  (cheers).  He  could  see  them.” 

Mr.  Findlater  spoke  strongly  on  the  neces- 


XXXIV 


A ppendix. 


sity  of  breaking  up  the  great  London  Corporate 
Estates  and  selling  them  to  persons  who  are 
living  in  Ireland  and  who  spend  their  money 
there. 

The  Times  of  Sept.  28,  1880,  had  an  article 
which  may  well  be  quoted  in  connection  with 
this  subject,  and  which  said  on  English  autho- 
rity that  Ireland  is  not  over  populated.  How 
painful  it  is  that  English  writers  are  so  per- 
petually stultifying  themselves  by  their  extra- 
ordinary inconsistency  when  writing  on  the 
Irish  question. 

“ There  appears  to  be  much  to  support  the  views  of  those 
who  maintain  that  these  poor  and  populated  parts  of  Ire- 
land are  plague-spots  upon  the  face  of  the  earth,  only  to 
be  cured  by  getting  rid  of  most  of  the  population,  and 
who  say  that  those  who  would  give  security  of  tenure  to 
those  people,  or  who  in  any  way  try  to  mitigate  their  condi- 
tion while  keeping  them  where  they  are,  are  only  perpetuat- 
ing an  unmixed  evil. 

“ But  there  is  a great  deal  to  be  said  on  the  other  side. 
To  begin  with,  if  these  people  are  crowded  together  on  a 
miserable  soil,  not  fit  properly  to  support  them,  that  is  not 
their  doing,  but  ours.  It  is  the  British  colonists  who  have 
driven  these  Celts  from  the  better  part  of  Ireland  till, 
hemmed  in  between  the  Saxons  and  the  deep  sea,  they  have 
taken  refuge  among  the  bogs,  mountains,  and  rocks,  where 
they  now  are.  In  the  circumstances,  they  do  not  so  much 
deserve  blame  for  living  so  miserably  as  credit  for  having 
lived  at  all.  If  their  cultivation  is  not  so  good  and  tidy  as 


Appendix. 


xxxv 


it  might  be,  what  could  we  expect  of  serfs  who  have  so  long 
lived  without  any  rights  of  property  ? 

“After  all,  low  as  the  condition  of  these  people  is  when 
judged  by  modern  standards,  this  is  but  primitive  man  as 
he  has  existed  ever  since  he  was  turned  out  of  Paradise. 
And  even  in  the  exceptionally  disadvantageous  conditions 
under  which  he  has  lived  and  multiplied  in  the  West  of  Ire- 
land, his  physical  type  has  not  degenerated.  On  the  con- 
trary, we  know  that,  unkempt  and  undeveloped  as  are  the 
seedling  plants  in  this  human  jungle,  as  soon  as  they  are 
cultivated  and  cared  for  they  are  found  to  be  very  fine 
specimens  of  humanity,  as  fine  as  exist  in  the  world.  There 
is  no  better  or  more  prolific  nursery  of  the  human  race. 

“ Looking  from  the  point  of  view  of  our  own  interests,  we 
may  well  hesitate  much,  before  we  cut  of  these  sources  of 
fresh  virgin  humanity.  Does  not  history  show  that  when 
nations  cease  to  derive  fresh  blood  from  their  sources  they 
begin  to  decline?  We  have  already  dried  up  one  of  our 
best  sources  in  the  Scotch  Highlands.  Shall  we  be  wise  to 
destroy  the  Irish  source  also  ? It  is  like  cutting  the  national 
tap-roots  by  which  sustenance  is  drawn  from  the  lower  soil. 
Who  was  it  who,  when  tired  and  sodden  by  the  affairs  and 
the  luxuries  of  the  world,  used  to  return  for  a season  to  tbe 
savage  tribes  from  which  he  sprang,  and  to  come  back  fresh 
and  re-invigorated  ? Seriously,  I do  believe  that  our  country 
would  not  be  what  it  is  without  supplies  of  fresh  blood. 
How  many  of  us  are  there  whose  not  very  remote  ancestors 
were  raised  in  Highland  cabins  little  better  than  those  of 
the  Irish,  and  had  the  inestimable  advantage  of  freedom 
from  shoes  and  stockings  ? ” 

IV. — Landlords  and  Land  Agents  as 
Magistrates. 

I have  elsewhere  expressed  a strong  opinion 


XXXVI 


Appendix . 


on  the  subject  of  land  agents  and  landlords 
acting  as  magistrates.  I believe  it  to  be  the 
source  of  innumerable  evils,  and  of  evils  of  a 
class  which  cause  special  disaffection  to  English 
rule.  The  land  agent’s  social  power  is  simply 
unlimited  ; if  you  add  to  this  legal  power  he  is 
omnipotent.  Landlords  are  always  calling  out 
for  coercion,  and  for  repressive  laws,  and  enact- 
ments for  the  people.  Hence,  when  they  act 
oppressively  towards  their  tenants,  whether 
socially  or  magisterially,  they  are  simply  acting 
on  the  one  principle  which  they  consider 
the  only  way  to  govern  Ireland.  The  almost 
unlimited  power  of  a land  agent  or  landlord, 
however,  must  be  judicially  supported,  by  at 
least  sufficient  co-operation  from  others.  But 
this  is  easily  secured,  especially  in  remote  dis- 
tricts. It  is  not  difficult  to  get  a J.P.  appointed 
who  will  quietly  acquiesce  in  the  rulings  of  the 
great  man — above  all  if  the  person  so  selected 
belongs  to  a lower  class  in  life,  and  is  strug- 
gling  up  to  “ gentility,”  the  unwise  ambition 
of  too  many  in  Ireland.  The  gift  of  some 
place  in  connection  with  the  many  offices 
needed  on  a great  estate  will  sometimes  transfer 
a “ patriot”  into  an  humble  follower,  and  thus 
the  rule  of  the  agent  is  quietly  and  safely  estab- 
lished. In  such  cases,  even  if  the  agent  is 


Appendix . xxxvli 

obliged,  in  common  decency,  to  leave  the  bench 
where  his  own  tenants  are  in  question,  he  is  sure 
that  his  wishes  will  be  carried  out  all  the  same. 

But,  in  most  cases,  the  land  agent  is  quite 
ready  to  adjudicate  cases  where  his  tenantry 
are  concerned.  The  following  extract,  from  the 
Freemans  Journal , is  one  of  many  such  cases, 
and  shows  the  urgent  necessity  for  having 
magistrates  who  will  be  impartial  judges,  or  who, 
at  least,  may  not  be  suspected  of  acting  either 
from  personal  interest  or  to  please  a powerful 
land  agent  or  landlord  : — 

“THE  MISSING  CHILD— EMILY  WALSHE. 

li  Monasterevan,  Saturday  Evening 

“ This  evening,  the  woman  Walshe,  who  carried  away  the 
child  she  claims  as  her  own,  was  arrested  in  Waterford,  and 
brought  back  with  the  child  to  Monasterevan.  She  was 
charged  before  Mr.  Harvey,  J.P.,  Lord  Drogheda’s  agent, 
with  taking  away,  by  force,  a child  not  her  own.  Mr.  P. 
Daly,  Solicitor,  appeared  in  favour  of  Mrs.  Walshe,  and,  as 
a preliminary  matter,  submitted  to  the  consideration  of  Mr. 
Harvey,  in  whose  house,  I may  remark,  by  the  way,  the  in- 
vestigation was  held,  that,  in  a case  of  such  importance,  the 
presence  of  some  other  magistrate  was  desirable.  Mr.  Harvey 
sent,  not  for  the  local  Catholic  magistrate,  James  Cassidy, 
Esq.  J.P.,  but  for  his  employer,  the  Marquis  of  Drogheda. 
The  case  then  proceeded.  A Mrs.  Wall  swore  positively 
that  the  child  in  question  was  her  child.  This  seemed  quite 
decisive  to  the  magistrates,  who  ordered  the  child  to  be  given 


XXXV1U 


A ppendix . 


up  to  Mrs.  Wall.  In  vain  Mr.  Daly  urged  that  the  woman 
Walshe  was  prepared,  if  she  got  the  opportunity,  to  swear 
that  the  child  was  hers,  and  that,  in  any  case,  as  the  matter 
might  be  said  to  be  involved  in  some  degree  of  uncertainty, 
the  child  ought  to  be  put  in  independent  custody 
pending  the  settlement  of  the  question  of  the  child’s  iden- 
tity. The  magistrates  refused  to  entertain  that  view  of  the 
case,  and  persisted  in  giving  the  child  to  Mrs.  Wall. 
Strange  to  say,  too,  though  the  crime  of  a poor  mother 
seizing  on  a child  whom  she  honestly  believed  to  be  hers 
does  not  seem  to  be  a great  one,  the  magistrates  refused 
bail,  though  bail  was  offered  to  any  amount  required,  and 
remanded  her  till  Monday  next.  The  Catholic  people  here 
have  no  disposition  to  prejudge  the  question  of  the  child’s 
identity,  but  they  feel  that  a fair  trial  has  not  been  given ; 
that  as  Lord  Drogheda’s  lodge-keeper  was  implicated  in  the 
matter,  he  and  his  agent  were  not  precisely  the  judges  that 
good  taste  would  have  selected,  and,  above  all,  they  feel, 
and  justly  feel,  that  to  give  up  the  child  to  the  parties 
against  whom  there  is  at  least  an  implied  charge  of  conceal- 
ing Emily  Walsh,  from  a writ  of  the  Queen’s  Bench,  was  not 
exactly  the  best  measure  to  secure  the  interests  of  justice. 
They  hope,  however,  that  there  is  some  unprejudiced 
authority  in  the  land  that  will  take  care  that  the  child,  who- 
ever she  be,  will  not  be  spirited  away  till  the  matter  shall 
have  been  thoroughly  investigated.” 


But  it  is  not  only  in  land  cases  that  I believe 
such  persons  to  be  utterly  unfit  for  the  Commis- 
sion of  the  Peace. 

The  following  case,  which  has  just  been 
brought  to  my  notice,  has  caused  no  little  bitter- 


A ppendix.  xxx  i x 

ness,  and  I fear  such  cases  are  by  no  means  un- 
common. 

Who  is  to  make  them  public  ? Certainly  not 
those  who  are  the  actors  in  them,  and  the  voice 
of  the  poor  can  rarely,  indeed,  make  itself  heard. 

The  following;  letter  has  been  addressed  to 
me,  and  it  is  in  every  particular  correct,  as  I 
have  learned  from  personal  inquiry  : — 

“ Madam, — I most  respectfully  beg  leave  to  state  tha* 
my  son,  Daniel  Harrington,  a child  ten  years  old,  was 
sentenced  to  one  month’s  imprisonment,  on  the  6th  day  of 
September  last,  at  a petty  sessions  held  at  Kenmare,  the 
justices  being  John  T.  Trench  and  Daniel  O’Brien  Corkery, 
Esqrs. 

“ The  cause  arose  out  of  he  and  a boy,  double  his  age, 
throwing  stones  at  each  other  across  a stream,  and  my  little 
boy  striking  the  other  with  his  stone,  and  on  the  day  of  trial 
it  can  be  shown  that  the  small  scrape  inflicted  on  the  injured 
boy  was  healed,  only  three  days  having  elapsed.  I am, 
Madam,  your  obedient  servant, 

“John  Harrington. 

“ Toormore,  3rd  December,  1880.” 

I have  seen  the  child — a singularly  frail, 
delicate  lad,  smaller  even  than  his  years  would 
suppose  him  to  be.  He  was  kept  in  solitary 
confinement,  picking  oakum  during  the  whole 
time.  The  case  is  too  painful  for  comment. 
The  boy  was  neither  wild  nor  vicious,  nor  had 


xl 


A p pendix. 


he  ever  committed  any  previous  offence.  How 
would  gentlemen  who  inflict  such  sentences  on 
the  poor  like  to  have  their  own  children  treated 
thus  ? Is  there  ever  to  be  one  law  for  the  poor 
and  another  for  the  rich  ? 

And  yet,  so  capricious  are  the  sentences  of 
the  same  magistrates,  that  for  violence  and 
assault  a far  lighter  punishment  has  been  given. 


VI. — Promises. 

Landlords  are  constantly  complaining  of  their 
tenants,  because,  as  they  say,  they  do  not  trust 
them.  Now,  if  Irish  landlords  are  such  bene- 
factors to  their  tenants,  if  their  government  is 
as  wise,  and  just,  and  kind  as  they  say,  why  do 
they  object  so  vehemently  and  noisely  to  have 
laws  made  by  England  for  the  relations  between 
them  and  their  tenants  ? 

This  is  a consideration  which  most  assuredly 
ought  to  weigh  with  every  impartial  person. 

In  the  famine  year  landlords  blamed  their 
tenants  bitterly,  because  they  refused  “ employ- 
ment ” offered  by  them.  But  the  unhappy  truth 
is,  that  from  long  years  of  too  painful  experi- 
ence, Irish  tenants  have  learned  to  distrust  their 
landlords  utterly.  They  always  find  that  “ leav- 
ing things  to  the  landlord  ” ends  in  taking  from 
themselves  what  is  justly  theirs. 


A ppendix . 


xii 


Again,  let  it  be  asked,  Why  do  Irish  land- 
lords fear  English  law  so  much  if  their  dealings 
with  their  tenantry  are  fair  ? 

But  we  can  scarcely  open  a paper  without 
seeing  some  complaint  of  unfair  dealing,  and  too 
often  of  treachery,  of  which  an  honest  man 
should  be  ashamed. 

The  following  has  been  addressed  to  Earl 
Fitzwilliam  : — 

“Clonegal,  Co.  Carlow,  November  18. 

“ My  Lord, — It  has  been  suggested  to  me  that  it  would 
be  well  to  draw  your  lordship’s  attention  to  a fact  connected 
with  the  management  of  your  property,  which  you  may  not 
personally  be  aware  of.  Last  spring  I waited  on  the  Shil- 
lelagh Board  of  Guardians,  and  asked  them  to  schedule  the 
union  under  the  Seeds  Act.  In  reply  I was  told  that  your 
lordship  would  give  your  tenants  seeds,  free  of  all  cost,  and 
Dr.  MacCabe,  the  Local  Government  Inspector,  who  was 
present,  hearing  the  announcement,  drew  my  attention  to 
the  fact  that  sixteen  electoral  divisions  belonged  to  your 
estate.  This  statement  was  also  made  in  the  public  Press 
at  the  time.  During  the  last  three  weeks,  I have  been  told 
by  different  persons  on  your  property  in  this  parish,  that  it 
is  your  intention  to  make  them  pay  for  these  seeds,  which 
they  thought,  and  the  public  were  led  to  believe,  was  a free 
gift,  and  that  tenpence  on  every  five  shillings’  worth  will  be 
charged  as  interest.  If  this  report  be  untrue,  I think  it  is 
greatly  to  be  regretted  that  one  of  exalted  rank,  high  posi- 
tion and  character,  should,  at  a time  like  the  present,  be 
misrepresented.  Hoping  your  lordship  will  pardon  this  in- 


xlii  Appendix . 

trusion,  and  begging  the  favour  of  a reply,  I remain,  your 
obedient  servant, 

“James  E.  Delany,  C.C.” 

We  have  already  given  instances  of  how 
landlords  actually  took  advantage  of  the  famine 
to  add  to  the  rents  and  burdens  of  their  tenants, 
while  professing  in  England  to  be  doing  acts  of 
charity  for  them. 

VII. — Fisheries. 

The  following  is  one  of  many  instances  lately 
before  the  public  of  the  perpetual  difficulties 
put  in  the  way  of  Irish  industries  : — 

“to  the  editor  oe  the  freeman.” 

“ Arklow,  29 th  November. 

“ Dear  Mr.  Editor — Now  that  your  journal  is  pleading 
so  ably  the  cause  of  the  tenant-farmers  of  Ireland,  I beg 
you  will  bring  under  the  notice  of  our  rulers  and  our  local 
lords  the  cause  of  another  class  of  her  Majesty’s  subjects — 
the  poor  fishermen  along  the  coasts  of  our  country.  The 
fishing  in  general  these  three  past  seasons  has  been  a 
failure.  The  condition  of  our  piers  and  harbours,  parti- 
cularly along  the  eastern  coast,  is  a disgrace  to  any  civilised 
nation.  The  month  of  November  now  past  was  usually  the 
fisherman’s  harvest.  He  had  no  fruit  to  gather  this  season. 
How,  I may  ask,  are  these  brave  men  to  pass  the  winter  ? 
We  have  been  promised  over  and  over  again  by  the  late  and 
present  Government  a grant  and  loan  for  the  improvement 


Appendix. 


xliii 


of  our  harbour  here  at  Arklow.  Now  or  never,  I would 
say,  is  the  time  to  fulfil  these  promises.  Over  1,200  brave 
men  belonging  to  this  town  are  living  by  the  sea.  They 
are  after  spending  the  past  year  along  the  coast,  north  and 
south,  but  without  success.  They  are  not  idlers.  It  is  no 
fault  of  theirs  that  they  did  not  bring  bread  to  their  families. 
At  this  moment  3,000  human  beings  are  in  imminent  danger 
of  starvation.  The  only  remedy  I could  suggest  is  to  at 
once  set  the  works  of  a new  harbour  afloat.  That  will  be 
giving  labour  of  a kind  these  men  can  be  employed  at.  It 
is  with  very  great  difficulty  even  in  good  weather  the 
smallest  boat  can  cross  the  bar.  On  Tuesday  night  last  a 
boat  called  the  James  was  wrecked  in  attempting  to  enter 
the  harbour ; the  crew  of  five  men  were  nearly  lost.  One 
poor  man  named  Cullen  was  part  owner.  He  is  ruined  for 
the  season.  We  hear  and  see  several  losses  of  the  same 
sort  each  year.  Having  tried  every  other  means,  locally 
and  otherwise,  and  not  succeeding  in  bringing  this  question 
of  the  Arklow  harbour  to  any  successful  issue,  I now  throw 
myself  on  public  opinion ; and  I call  on  the  Press  and  our 
Members  of  Parliament  to  bring  forward  this  matter  in 
such  a way  that  the  Government  of  the  country  will  at  once 
bring  succour  to  3,000  people. — I am,  Mr.  Editor,  yours 
very  truly, 

“James  Dunphy,  P.P.,  Arklow.” 


VIII. — Mr.  Charles  Russell’s  Land  Scheme. 

The  following  sketch  of  a scheme  of  land  law 
reform  for  Ireland  has  been  published  by  Mr. 
Charles  Russell,  Q.C.,  M.P.  : — 

“ I say  emphatically  that  no  patching  up,  no  extension,  no 


xliv 


Appendix. 


modification  of  the  so-called  Ulster  custom  will  avail.  The 
action  of  the  landlords  themselves  in  Ulster,  especially  since 
1870,  has  shattered  the  confidence  of  the  people  in  the 
efficacy  of  that  custom.  It  needs  little  consideration  to  see 
that  a right  in  the  tenant  to  sell  his  interest  in  his  holding 
cannot  long  have  a healthy  existence  side  by  side  with  a 
power  practically  uncontrolled  in  the  landlord  to  raise  the 
rent.  That  power,  exercised  by  small  gradual  increments  of 
rent,  stealthily  but  surely  eats  into  the  very  vitals  of  the  custom. 
Further,  I feel  confident  that  no  system  which  contemplates 
a future  periodical  revaluation  of  rents  will  be  found  effective 
or  satisfactory  either  to  landlord  or  tenant.  If,  therefore, 
the  plan  known  as  the  “three  F.’s”  contemplates,  not  a rent 
fixed  once  and  for  all,  but  periodic  revaluation,  I believe  it 
would  prove  an  endless  source  of  ill-will  and  discontent.  I 
know  no  sound  automatic  arrangement  by  which  rent  may 
equitably  be  made  to  rise  and  fall.  If  the  only  alternative 
were  between  periodical  readjustments  of  rents  and  its  perma- 
nent fixture  at  what  the  tenant  would  now  consider  an  exces- 
sive rent,  I think  he  would  prefer  the  latter  because  of  its 
certainty.  What  is  now  to  be  done  ought  to  be  done  with 
a view  to  a permanent  settlement — as  far  as  there  can  be 
permanence  in  the  shifting  conditions  of  human  society.  I 
may  therefore  at  once  say  that,  in  my  opinion,  the  direction 
which  the  settlement  of  this  question  should  take  is,  so  far  as 
it  can  be  done,  to  turn  the  occupiers  of  agricultural  holdings 
in  Ireland  into  a peasant,  or,  as  I prefer  to  call  them,  occupy- 
ing proprietors,  securing  them  meanwhile  in  the  possession 
of  their  holdings  at  rents  justly  ascertained  and  fixed  now 
once  and  for  ever.  I shall  presently  point  out  the  modes  by 
which  I think  these  results  may  be  attained. 

“ It  must  be  obvious  from  what  I have  already  written  that 
in  many  instances  in  Ireland  to  stereotype  the  existing  con- 
dition of  things  in  the  case  of  small  and  poor  holdings  would 


A ppendix. 


xlv 


not  be  to  secure  comfort  to  the  tenant.  A reduction  to  what 
even  the  tenant  would  consider  a fair  rent  would  not  mean 
the  difference  between  want  and  plenty.  But  it  is  wonder- 
ful upon  how  little  some  Irish  tenants  can  live,  and  what  a 
change  even  a small  accession  of  means  can  effect.  Even  in 
the  case  of  the  very  small  and  poor  holdings  (which  I should 
hope  to  see  gradually  disappear),  I have  no  doubt  that  per- 
fect security,  prompting  the  tenant  to  unstinted  exertion 
would  enable  him  to  take  much  more  out  of  the  land  than  he 
does  at  present,  and  thus  better  his  condition.  Still,  it  is 
clear  that  there  will  yet  remain  cases — probably  many — in 
Ireland  which  no  scheme  of  fixing  a fair  rent,  or  of  convert- 
ing the  tenant  into  a proprietor  will  meet,  and  in  reference  to 
which  the  remedy  must  be  either  migration  or  emigration.  The 
clearances  effected  in  the  famine  years  and  since  have  devoted 
to  sheep  and  cattle  large  tracts  of  fertile  land  capable  of  sus- 
taining many  families  in  decent  condition,  but  it  does  not 
seem  possible  to  formulate  any  plan  by  which  Parliament 
can  undo  the  work  so  effected.  The  desired  changes  must 
be  brought  about  by  the  gradual  action  of  time  and  progress. 
But  I have  pointed  to  the  vast  tracts  of  waste  lands  capable 
of  reclamation,  which  lie  side  by  side  with  that  which  the 
tenants  have  already  reclaimed.  I believe  that  the  waste 
but  reclaimable  lands  in  Ireland  have  been  estimated  at  some 
millions  of  acres,  exclusive  of  the  enclosed  lands,  the  produc- 
tive capacity  of  which  could  readily  be  doubled.  If  these 
were  properly  dealt  with,  and,  where  advisable,  added  to  the 
existing  holdings,  the  cases  would  be  comparatively  few  in 
which  there  would  not  be  land  sufficient  (under  the  new 
energy  which  the  sense  of  security  wouid  give)  to  support 
the  existing  tenants  and  their  families  in  at  least  rude  comfort. 
But,  to  carry  out  such  a plan  as  I suggest,  the  necessity  is 
clear  for  the  creation  of  a strong  and  permanent  land  com- 
mission, which  shall  have  functions  of  a judicial,  an  execu- 


xlvi  Appendix. 

tive,  and  of  a ministerial  character.  At  these  I shall  pre* 
sently  glance. 

“ With  this  preface  I shall  state  in  outline  my  remedial 
suggestions. 

“ i.  I would  abolish  every  system  of  settlement  or  entail 
which  can  interfere  with  the  sale  or  dealing  with  land  abso- 
lutely at  any  given  moment.  In  other  words,  I would  re- 
quire that  there  shall  always  be  a person  with  absolute 
dominion  over  the  land  able  to  sell  and  make  good  title  to 
it.  Let  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  the  land  be  tied  up  or 
settled  in  any  way  you  please,  but  leave  the  land  itself  free 
to  be  dealt  with. 

“ 2.  In  all  cases  where  land  is  held  by  middlemen  (that  is, 
lessees  intermediate  between  the  owner  in  fee  and  the  occu. 
pier)  I would  give  to  whichever  of  the  parties  had  the  major 
interest  in  the  holding  the  right  to  buy  out  the  other  on 
payment  to  him  of  such  sum  as  might  be  agreed  on,  or  failing 
such  agreement,  then  in  payment  of  such  sum  as  the  commis- 
sion should  award  ; and  I should  give  to  the  owner  of  the 
minor  interest  a corresponding  right  to  purchase  in  the  event 
of  the  owner  of  the  major  interest  failing  to  purchase  for  six 
months  after  he  had  been  served  with  notice  calling  on  him 
to  elect  to  purchase  or  sell. 

li  3.  I would  declare  every  tenant  ofan  agricultural  holding 
in  Ireland  who,  at  the  date  of  the  passing  of  the  proposed 
Act  or  at  any  subsequent  date  has  been,  by  himself  or  by  his 
predecessors  in  title,  say  ten  years  in  occupation  of  his  hold- 
ing, entitled  to  demand  from  his  landlord  a fee  farm  grant 
or  lease  for  ev^r  of  his  holding,  at  a rent  to  be  fixed  at  the 
date  of  such  demand  once  and  for  ever,  subject  to  a right  on 
the  part  of  the  landlord  to  appeal  to  the  commission  and 
show  special  circumstances  which  should  equitably  disen- 
title the  tenant  to  the  grant.  The  rent  should  be  fixed,  if 
possible,  by  agreement  between  landlord  and  tenant,  but,  in 


Appendix. 


xlvii 


case  of  disagreement,  to  be  fixed  by  or  at  the  instance  of  the 
commission  referred  to.  Probably  the  services  of  the  judges 
of  the  county  courts  could  be  utilised  for  this  purpose.  When 
fixing  the  rent,  all  improvements  made  either  by  landlord  or 
tenant  should  respectively  be  taken  into  account ; also  any 
special  circumstances  pointing  to  probable  prospective  in- 
crease in  value  affecting  the  particular  holding.  Every  such 
fee  farm  grant  should  be  in  a form  to  be  prescribed  by  the 
statute,  and  of  the  shortest  and  simplest  kind.  Each  such 
grant  should  by  statute  simply  imply  covenants  by  the  tenant 
to  pay  the  fixed  rent  and  keep  the  premises  in  repair,  against 
waste,  against  subleasing,  subletting,  or  subdividing  without 
landlord’s  consent,  but  no  covenant  against  charging  or  sel- 
ling his  interest,  mines  and  minerals  to  be  reserved  to  the 
landlord.  On  breach  of  any  covenant  the  landlord  to  have 
a right  of  sale,  with  right  of  pre-emption,  two  years’  arrears 
of  rent  to  be  a first  charge  upon  the  proceeds.  For  any 
greater  arrear  landlord  to  rank  with  ordinary  creditors. 

“ 4.  Wherever  it  could  be  proved  that  at  the  date  of  the 
passing  of  the  Act  the  rule  had  been  on  any  estate  to  allow 
a hanging  gale  or  gales  of  rent  for  an  uninterrupted  period  of 
say  ten  years,  I should  declare  such  gale  or  gales  as  abso- 
lutely irrecoverable,  and  as  for  all  future  rent  I should  declare 
that  any  rent  beyond  two  years’  rent  should  be  a mere  per- 
sonal debt  due  by  the  tenant,  and  should  as  against  the  land 
or  the  proceeds  of  the  tenant’s  interests  rank  with  other 
creditors. 

“ 5.  I would  allow  each  tenant  who  had  obtained  his  fee- 
farm  grant  to  buy  at  any  time,  at  25  years’,  or  at  any  lesser 
number  of  years,  purchase  that  might  be  agreed  on,  his  rent, 
or  any  part  of  his  rent,  not  being  less  than  jQ\.  In  order  to 
obviate  any  inconvenience  to  the  landlord  from  having  pay- 
ments made  in  sums  too  small  for  advantageous  investment, 

I would  provide  for  interim  payment  of  such  moneys  to  the 


xlviii 


A ppendix , 


land  commission,  securing  the  tenant  meanwhile  his  yearly 
rent  reduction.  The  land  commission  might  be  empowered 
to  issue  land  bonds,  even  for  small  sums,  which  I feel  sure 
would  be  a popular  investment  for  the  small  savings  of  the 
country.  I regard  some  such  provision  as  this  as  of  the 
highest  moment. 

“6.  I would  give  the  land  commission  power  to  insist  upon 
the  sale  of  corporate  estates,  and  of  all  estates  mortgaged 
beyond  a certain  proportion  of  their  value — say  75  per  cent 
But  in  this  latter  case,  unless  by  the  consent  of  the  owners, 
no  more  of  the  estate  need  be  sold  than  would  be  needed  to 
pay  off  the  incumbrance. 

“7.  The  land  commission  to  have  statutory  powers  to  buy 
and  deal  with  (a)  all  the  waste  lands  in  the  country ; (b)  the 
estates  above  referred  to  at  No.  6 ; (c)  all  other  estates  as  to 
which  the  legislature  might  consider  it  right  to  give  the  com- 
mission the  compulsory  powers  of  purchase ; (d)  all  such 
estates  as  may  be  voluntarily  offered  for  sale. 

“ 8.  On  any  purchase  of  an  estate  being  made  by  the  land 
commissioners  they  should  pay  the  owner  by  land  bonds 
with  Government  security,  bearing  interest  at  3 per  cent., 
redeemable  at  par.  The  owner  should  be  entitled  to  re- 
ceive so  much  in  bonds  as  at  the  current  price  of  the  day 
would  represent  the  full  purchase  money  of  the  estate. 

“ 9.  The  lands  so  purchased  should  be  sold  by  the  commis- 
sioners to  the  tenants  to  be  held  in  fee-simple,  such  sales  to 
be  in  consideration  of  such  cash  payments  and  annual  instal- 
ments in  discharge  of  principal  and  interest,  and  thrown  over 
such  number  of  years,  not  exceeding  fifty-two,  as  to  the  com- 
missioners would  seem  best,  provided,  however,  that  all 
calculations  for  the  payment  by  annual  instalments  should  be 
based  on  the  assumption  that  not  less  than  three  per  cent, 
interest  should  be  secured  to  the  State  on  all  money  due  by 
the  purchasers.  So  long  as  the  tenants  remain  debtors  to 


A ppendix. 


xlix 


the  State  for  any  part  of  the  purchase  money,  such  tenants 
to  hold  upon  the  terms  and  subject  to  the  restrictions  sub- 
stantially as  they  would  as  to  fee-farm  grants  under  head 
No.  3. 

“10.  I would  appropriate  the  balance  of  the  Irish  Church 
Surplus  as  a guarantee  fund  to  indemnify  the  State  against 
possible  loss  in  these  transactions. 

“ 11.  The  land  commission  should  keep  a set  of  registry 
books,  divided  into  counties  or  into  poor  law  unions,  in  which 
all  dealings  with  lands  which  pass  through  the  hands  of  the 
commission  should  be  entered,  such  entry  to  be  the  only 
registration  to  be  recognised  as  effecting  such  lands.  This 
would  but  inaugurate  a system  of  local  registration  like 
that  in  France,  and  would  tend  to  simplify  and  cheapen 
the  dealings  with  land.  It  might  easily  be  adapted  in 
course  of  time  to  cover  all  dealings  with  land. 

“12.  I would  authorise  the  commission  to  expend  such  sum 
as  they  might  consider  judicious  within  certain  limits  in 
planting  such  portion  of  the  waste  lands  purchased  by  them 
as  could  not  be  profitably  reclaimed  for  tillage,  but  which 
might  with  ultimate  profit  be  converted  into  plantations,  or 
otherwise  enable  them  to  utilise  such  lands. 

“13.  I would  throw  upon  the  land  commission  all  proper 
expenses  of  valuation  of  titles  and  of  conveyancing  in  con- 
nection with  all  estates  dealt  with  by  them,  aud  such  ex- 
amination of  titles  and  conveyancing  should  as  far  as  pos- 
sible be  carried  out  under  the  direction  of  the  land  commis- 
sion, and  should  not  be  referred  to  any  other  court. 

“ Afterall,  the  legislature  is  on  these  suggestions  only  asked 
to  do  on  a larger  scale  what  is  every  day  done  on  a small 
scale.  Where  the  public  need  of  a road,  or  a railway,  or 
other  work  of  general  utility  requires  the  compulsory  expro- 
priation of  a particular  man’s  rights,  they  are  expropriated. 
He  has  to  give  way  to  the  needs  of  the  community  in  which 


1 


Appendix . 


he  lives.  He  is  paid,  not  what  he  may  consider  the  value  of 
that  which  is  taken  from  him,  but  the  full  compensation  which 
the  appointed  legal  tribunal  awards  him.” 


“ IRELAND  AND  ROME.” 

Translated  from  the  “ Aurora ” of  the  12  ih. 

“After  having  written  of  the  origin  and  of  the  present 
state  of  the  Irish  question,  we  come  to  treat  of  its  solution. 
In  order  to  apply  a remedy  with  any  good  effect  we  need  to 
have  a thorough  knowledge  of  the  disease.  From  what  we 
have  written  it  appears  manifest  that  the  Irish  peasant  is  at 
the  mercy  of  a landlord,  who  can  at  any  moment  evict  him, 
and  thus  become,  without  any  expense,  the  owner  of  all  the 
improvements  made  by  him  on  the  soil,  and  even  of  his 
cabin.  The  tenant  cannot  find  in  the  great  manufactures, 
which  in  Ireland  have  no  existence,  any  refuge  from  the 
cruelty  and  avarice  of  his  landlord.  For  he  has  not  even 
an  escape  in  the  justice  of  the  law,  whose  verdicts,  too  often 
returned  by  the  landlords  themselves,  are  either  most  expen- 
sive to  obtain,  or,  when  obtained,  not  quite  impartial.  A 
stable  and  radical  reform  of  the  agrarian  laws,  excepting 
those  which  are  right  and  just,  would  then  be  the  first 
remedy.  The  introduction  of  new  industries  and  the  de- 
velopment of  the  old  throughout  the  whole  island  would 
be  a second  remedy.  The  purchase  of  the  land  from  the 
few  landlords  and  the  sale  of  it  in  small  allotments  to  the 
peasantry,  giving  them  all  possible  facilities  for  repayment, 
would  be  the  third. 

“Of  these  three  remedies  which  offer  themselves  spon- 
taneously to  the  mind  of  every  one  who  knows  Ireland  and 
its  present  condition,  which  has  the  English  Government 


A ppendix. 


li 


tried?  Not  one.  It  has  confined  itself  to  the  creation  of 
commissions,  consisting  of  landlords  who  have  interests 
different  from  those  which  they,  as  commissioners,  are 
bound  to  protect.  If  it  had  had  a desire  to  remedy  effica- 
ciously so  many  grievances,  the  British  Government  should 
have  listened  to  the  protests  of  the  Irish  members  against 
the  absence  of  a tenant  farmer  on  these  commissions.  The 
present  agrarian  laws  need  to  be  modified  in  such  a way  as 
to  secure  the  tenant  on  that  land  which  he  has  watered  with 
the  sweat  of  his  brow,  or,  if  not,  all  the  obstacles  which 
prevent  his  becoming  owner  should  be  removed.  And  the 
latter,  in  our  opinion,  if  not  the  only,  is  at  least  the  most 
practicable  remedy  sanctioned  by  experience  in  other 
countries.  On  the  soil  of  every  land  the  people  who  inhabit 
it  should  be  able  to  live.  Now  to  whom  does  the  soil  of 
England  and  Scotland  and  Ireland  belong  ? Does  it  belong 
to  the  32  million  inhabitants  of  the  United  Kingdom?  No; 
it  belongs  solely  to  7,000  proprietors.  Consequently  the 
lives  of  32  million  individuals  are  at  the  disposal  of  seven 
thousand  persons,  who  at  any  moment  may  evict  the  tenants, 
and  without  having  expended  a coin  in  improving  the  land 
may  directly  or  indirectly  rob  them  of  the  capital  and  of  the 
labour  which  they  have  expended  in  rendering  it  productive. 
Now  until  this  land  will  become  the  possible  property  of  all, 
until  the  barriers  be  removed  which  prevent  the  peasant 
from  becoming  if  it  pleases  him,  or  if  he  is  able,  by  easy 
and  just  means,  the  owner,  the  agrarian  question  in  Ireland 
will  never  be  settled.  This  system  by  which  property  freed 
from  landlordism  is  rendered  accessible  to  the  purse  of  all, 
is  the  system  which  has  given  property  to  Belgium  and 
Prussia,  and  which  renders  the  states  where  it  has  been  long 
in  force  powerful.  Let  us  take  for  example  Prussia,  where 
by  means  of  a general  and  peaceful  reform  the  question  was 
systematised  at  the  beginning  of  our  century.  On  the  9th 


lii 


A ppendix. 


of  October,  1807,  a decree  issued  by  Stein,  Prime  Minister, 
took  from  the  nobles  the  exclusive  faculty  of  possessing 
land.  To  the  proletarian  were  extended  the  rights  of  every 
free  nation,  and  every  Prussian  was  recognized  as  qualified 
to  own,  to  vote,  and  to  bear  arms.  Eight  years  after  Har- 
denburg  completed  the  work  of  Stein.  The  ancient  tenures, 
for  the  greater  part  uncultivated  and  as  extensive  as  pro- 
vinces, became  the  property  of  the  Government,  which 
divided  them  into  small  farms  of  twenty  acres  each.  So  the 
lands  of  Prussia,  which  were  first  in  the  hands  of  some 
thousands  of  privileged  proprietors,  are  now  in  the  hands  of 
two  millions  and  a-half  of  peasants.  When  a person  wishes 
to-day  to  buy  a farm  in  Prussia  he  has  only  to  go  to  one  of 
the  many  Government  offices  in  his  district,  offices  more 
numerous  than  police-stations  in  Ireland,  and  there  ask  for 
the  topographical  plan  of  the  lands  for  sale.  When  he  has 
found  what  suits  him,  he  pays  a twentieth  of  the  total  price, 
and  he  is  recognized  as  proprietor.  From  the  supreme 
tribunal  he  receives  a paper,  with  a document  of  the  nineteen 
successive  payments,  with  their  respective  dates,  and  the 
interest  of  the  money  up  to  the  last  payment.  This  docu- 
ment, a kind  of  temporary  agreement,  is  given  by  the 
Government  to  the  former  owners  of  the  soil,  who  can 
negotiate  it  like  any  other  value,  the  Government  being 
responsible  for  the  exact  payment.  When  the  peasant  has 
made  the  other  nineteen  payments  he  becomes  proprietor 
without  any  of  the  formalities  or  law  expenses  which  else- 
where are  multiplied  to  infinity.  This  system  should  be 
adopted  in  Ireland.  What  was  done  with  the  Church  lands 
by  the  law  known  as  the  Church  Temporalities  Act  ought 
to  be  done  for  the  whole  of  Ireland.  Then,  whoever  has 
the  wish  and  the  money  to  make  a first  payment  may 
become  master  of  the  soil.  The  land  of  Ireland  would 
become  fertile  if  the  tenant  were  able  to  work  it  with  the 


Appendix. 


liii 


conviction  that  he  would  not  be  tom  from  it,  and  then  the 
country  would  become  one  of  the  richest  agricultural 
countries  in  the  world.  The  effect  of  this  reform  is  easily 
foreseen.  The  new  tillers  of  the  soil  would  have  more 
money,  they  would  be  fed  better,  would  dress  better,  and 
would  give  their  children  a better  education — a matter 
entirely  neglected  to-day  through  poverty.  When  the 
peasant,  by  means  of  his  industry,  would  have  rendered  the 
land  fruitful,  he  would  not  be  afraid  of  the  landlord  coming 
and  increasing  his  rent,  and  he  would  be  able  to  supply  his 
necessaries  and  procure  himself  reasonable  comforts.  The 
tradesman  and  the  professional  would  be  thus  stimulated  in 
their  occupations,  and  the  prosperity  of  the  agricultural 
classes  would  be  increased,  and  the  Irish  would  not  be 
obliged  to  give  their  labour  to  a master  too  often  without 
faith  and  without  heart.  And  what  an  increase  of  general 
prosperity  for  the  entire  kingdom  ! It  is  well  known  that 
in  the  last  twenty  years  almost  three  million  persons  were 
obliged  to  flee  before  starvation  and  other  scourges.  Where 
did  they  go  ? Unaccustomed  to  everything  but  tilling  the 
soil,  they  overflowed  the  large  cities  of  England  and  Scot- 
land looking  for  employment,  and,  being  forced  by  hunger, 
they  offered  their  services  for  a price  much  lower  than  that 
demanded  by  the  English  and  Scotch  workmen.  Thus  they 
have  contributed  to  lower  the  standard  of  wages,  and  to 
fatten  with  their  tissue  the  already  wealthy  capitalist,  render- 
ing, at  the  same  time,  the  Condition  of  the  honest  and  in- 
telligent artizan  much  more  trying  and  difficult.  Here,  then, 
is  the  best  solution  of  the  great  problem,  according  to  the 
wisest  opinions.  It  is  true,  we  confess,  that  it  strikes  right 
to  the  heart,  and  through  the  most  delicate  fibres,  the  pride 
of  the  powerful  aristocracy.  If  England  will  find  courage 
to  make  the  great  sacrifice,  and  find  wisdom  and  energy  in 
her  statesmen  to  carry  out  such  a peaceful  revolution,  the 


liv 


A ppendix. 


world  would  once  more  render  homage  to  British  good 
sense  and  equity.  But  if  a contrary  policy  will  again 
triumph  in  Westminster  Palace,  will  we  see  poor  Ireland 
patiently  await  in  the  generous  help  of  her  distant  sons  the 
bread  which  is  to  save  her  from  famine,  or  shall  a cry  of 
war  from  Donegal  to  Cork  warn  us  that  the  patience  of 
nations,  like  that  of  individuals,  has  its  limits?  We  antici- 
pate for  generous  Ireland  a just  and  peaceful  solution  of 
these  difficulties,  an  efficacious  remedy  for  her  wrongs  ; and 
for  the  sake  of  Old  England  we  do  not  wish  that  she  should 
add  to  her  long  and  complex  list  of  enemies  of  to-day  this 
glorious  and  noble  island,  which  can  supply  the  British  lion 
in  the  most  critical  moments  with  soldiers  like  those  named 
Roberts  and  Garnet  Wolseley.” 

I appended  to  this  an  extract  from  a speech 
of  Mr.  Sexton,  M.P. : — 

“ Mr.  Sexton  went  on  to  say  how  glad  he  was  that  the 
labourers  themselves  were  not  to  be  hoodwinked  by  this 
equivocal  anxiety  for  their  well-being.  They  knew  well 
enough  that  the  only  gifts  they  had  ever  received  from  the 
landlords  were  the  rent  collector  and  the  sheriff.  He  would 
also  draw  their  attention  to  the  cry  now  raised  against  the 
league  that  they  were  favourers  of  outrage,  because  some 
factious  “ voice”  in  the  crowd  chose  to  be  humorous.  Not 
one  of  those  who  made  such  charges  but  knew  well  enough 
that  outrages  were  not  countenanced  by  the  Land  League. 
The  best  proof  of  this  was  before  them  to-day  in  the  pre- 
sence of  their  venerated  priests,  whose  mission  it  was  to 
teach  them  the  truths  of  religion  and  the  beauties  of  a truly 
Christian  morality.  This  was  the  function  of  their  zealous 
clergy,  and  he  did  not  think  that  speakers  at  public  meet- 
ings were  bound  to  be  continually  lecturing  the  people 


Appendix. 


against  crime,  thereby  implying  that  the  people  were  pre- 
disposed to  outrages,  and  required  perpetual  cautioning  to 
keep  them  from  shedding  the  blood  of  their  fellow  men. 
All  sympathy  with  murder  has  been  disavowed  by  the  Land 
League,  and  he  would  not  insult  the  morality  of  our  virtuous 
people  by  preaching  to  them  (applause).” 


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